The first trailer for Disney+ series Moon Knight has finally dropped, and teases a gloriously unhinged performance from the hugely talented Oscar Isaac. One aspect of this performance that has been picked up on by many is Isaac’s peculiar “cor-blimey” British accent, with Marvel fans having since taken to social media to praise, question, deride and criticize in equal measure.
There have been several comparisons to infamous movie accents of old, including Dick Van Dyke’s much-maligned effort at crafting a cockney accent in Mary Poppins and Don Cheadle’s “apples and pears” attempt in the star-studded heist movie Ocean’s Eleven. Hopefully, it won’t become quite as distracting and notorious as those examples.
Aside from being British, the series will find Oscar Isaac as the unorthodox superhero, Moon Knight, in this new globetrotting action-adventure series featuring a complex vigilante who suffers from a dissociative identity disorder. The multiple identities who live inside him find themselves thrust into a deadly war of the gods against the backdrop of modern and Ancient Egypt. It is the inclusion of dissociative identity disorder that has resulted in Isaac’s accent changing so dramatically from what audiences are used to.
We wait with bated breath to see which other accents Oscar Isaac might exhibit as his various personality’s gradually present themselves.
Marvel Studios
Ethan Hawke will star alongside Oscar Isaac in Moon Knight, with the Training Day and Sinister star due to portray a character named Arthur Harrow. A cult leader who encourages Spector to embrace his inner darkness, Hawke’s role in the series will likely see him emerge as the villain of the piece, as he pushes Isaac’s antihero towards violence.
While he has been forced to remain tight-lipped regarding details of the series, Ethan Hawke has heaped praise on the work of Oscar Isaac and his performance in Moon Knight. “If you were an actor in the ’50s, you know, they made Westerns. If you’re an actor in the 2020s, you’ve got Marvel. And I’m really fortunate because we’re dealing with a story that doesn’t have a lot of ancillary baggage,” the actor said. “If you play Spider-Man or Batman, they’ve got so much baggage and the audience have such expectations. It’s like playing Hamlet - you can’t play it in a vacuum. You’re playing it in relationship to the other Hamlets. Whereas with ‘Moon Knight,’ people don’t know much about it. It doesn’t have a lot of baggage. [Oscar Isaac] is giving an absolutely phenomenal performance, and it feels exciting to be a part of it with him.”
Created by Jeremy Slater, Moon Knight will consist of six 40 to 50-minute episodes, with Mohamed Diab directing four episodes and duo Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead directing the other two. Moon Knight is now due to arrive on Disney+ on March 30 and will be just one of several new Marvel series to land on the streaming service this year, including Ms. Marvel and She-Hulk, both of which are confirmed for 2022 debuts.
