Since WandaVision arrived on Disney+ early in 2021, Marvel Studios has made it clear that branching into TV has allowed the MCU to do things that it couldn’t do on the big screen and has ultimately allowed them to be more experimental with formats and content. Moon Knight is the next MCU-based show to arrive on the platform next month, as with a new trailer expected to arrive during this next weekend’s Super Bowl, the promotional campaign around Oscar Isaac’s dark hero is underway and Isaac himself has been teasing that the series will be taking some risky creative choices.

Moon Knight is a well-known character to followers of Marvel Comics, but in the general world of superheroes he is another new addition to the MCU for fans to get acquainted with. In the series, Isaac plays Steven Grant, a gift-shop employee who suffers from a sleep disorder that gives him blackouts and memories of a life he hasn’t lived. However, he eventually discovers his real name is Marc Spector, a mercenary with dissociative identity disorder who finds himself becoming a conduit for the moon god Khonshu.

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While talking with Jared Leto for Variety’s Actors on Actors series, during which both actors discussed their upcoming Marvel roles, Isaac reflected on how the TV series has allowed the team the freedom to not worry about box office takings and concentrate on making a show that takes some riskier decisions that a movie perhaps wouldn’t have. He explained:

“There was a lot of room to try stuff because there wasn’t the pressure that we got to make sure we make however many hundreds of millions of dollars on the opening weekend. So we could make it very point-of-view. We could make very weird decisions. At the moment, at least — and I don’t imagine it’s going to go backwards — it feels like that’s where more of the risk is being taken because it can, financially.”

Marvel Studios Are Bringing Darkness To The MCU With Moon Knight and Other Shows

     Marvel Studios

While this is not the first time Marvel has attempted to bring Marc Spector and his supernatural alter ego to the screen, it certainly appears to be the one that is going to be a huge success. Previous attempts have included a James Gunn-pitched movie idea that he wasn’t in a position to work on himself that fell by the wayside, and a plan to have the character in the second season of Blade: The Series, but that was scrapped before it happened. Now that Marvel Studios has Disney+ as a playground, characters like Moon Knight can have a fair crack of the whip, and it looks like they are taking the opportunity to test out some of Marvel’s darker stories.

As the Marvel Cinematic Universe evolves, it seems that someone has realized the people who were kids when Iron Man first arrived on screen in 2008 are now over a decade older and can handle something darker from the MCU. With the likes of Blade and Werewolf by Night bringing more horror-orientated characters into the mix, and the arrival of Deadpool 3 on the horizon, it is clear that Marvel is looking to spread its stories between family-friendly and true to source more mature content. For fans of the franchise, that can only mean good things for the future of the MCU.