Moon Knight: Ethan Hawke Got MCU Advice From Doctor Strange Director

Ahead of joining Moon Knight, Ethan Hawke got some marvelous advice from Doctor Strange director Scott Derrickson. Derrickson and Hawke worked together on The Black Phone, a horror film over at Universal Studios. During this time, Hawke was in the process of joining Moon Knight and the Marvel Cinematic Universe as Arthur Harrow. Despite Derrickson exiting the Doctor Strange sequel over creative differences between himself and the team at Marvel Studios, the director had nothing but praise for his experience with Marvel according to Hawke.

“You know, Scott was one of the first people I called up when I was thinking about taking this job, about what was his experience like, and he was so complimentary,” Hawke told ComicBook.com in an exclusive interview (seen in the video above and on the Phase Zero YouTube channel). “And so, he basically credits Kevin Feige with being the only artist to ever run a studio, that he really thinks more the way artists do than the way your conventional studio executive does.”

Feige has been the President of Marvel Studios for years now, serving as an executive producer on all of the Disney-owned studio’s titles. It seems all creative steps in the Marvel Cinematic Universe flow through Feige. “And that’s the key to their success,” Hawke said of Feige. “And he kind of told me that I would get out what I put into it. You give a long leash, that they give you a lot of freedom if you color within the lines.” As it turns out, “Doctor Strange is one of my favorite of their movies,” Hawke revealed. As the story goes, Sam Raimi has taken the Strange reigns for Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness but Derrickson has expressed no ill will towards the studio since the swap. An enthusiastic and talented professional, Derrickson later joined ComicBook.com for a Quarantine Watch Party in 2020 to watch Doctor Strange with fans in real time and shared plenty of secrets about working on the Marvel Studios film. 

Hawke plays a menacing character in his work with Derrickson on Black Phone, not unlike his Arthur Harrow in the Marvel world. “I don’t think I’ll spoil anything by telling you that, I mean, I think he views himself as a real apostle of the Goddess Ammit, and that he’s here to heal the world, and rid it of sinners,” Hawke said of Arthur Harrow. “It’s gonna be a violent time, but the peace and the beauty that will come when all these sinners are gone, it’s gonna be worth it.”

Are you excited to see Marvel’s Moon Knight series? Share your thoughts in the comment section or send them my way on Instagram! Moon Knight premieres its first episode on Disney+ on Wednesday.