Moon Knight Directors Tease Horror Influence on the Series

According to two of its directors, Disney+’s upcoming Moon Knight series will embrace the Marvel character’s roots in horror. Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead are promoting their buzzy Sundance movie Something in the Dirt, which they filmed in 2020. Since then, they’ve moved on to directing episodes of Netflix’s hit sci-fi/horror mystery series Archive 81 and two episodes of Moon Knight, the latter starring Oscar Isaac as Marvel’s supernatural vigilante. Speaking to The Playlist, Benson and Moorhead say they feel their work for these big streaming services pairs well with their work on independent films. 

“They really complement each other,” Benson says. “They fulfill you in different ways, but then they’re also incredibly similar. When you go onto a gigantic set, once you walk past all the trailers and the giant trucks, the craft is basically the same. You got a camera; you got actors, you have to tell people what to do all that.”

The works also are of a similar genre bent. Something in the Dirt and Archive 81 both have elements of paranormal horror. Moon Knight will similarly be playing to character horror roots.

“The phone also isn’t ringing to go do Two And A Half Men,’” Moorhead joked. “It’s stuff that’s kind of like what we already do. Archive 81 definitely shares DNA with [our previous films] The Endless and Resolution. You’ll see with same with Moon Knight.”

Doug Moench and artist Don Perlin created Moon Knight in Werewolf by Night #32, a 1975 issue of Marvel Comics’ ongoing horror series. Though he has no supernatural abilities himself, he does have a strange attachment to the Egyptian god Khonshu.

According to Marvel Studios’ official synopsis, Moon Knight follows Steven Grant, a mild-mannered gift-shop employee. He becomes plagued with blackouts and memories of another life. Steven discovers he has dissociative identity disorder and shares a body with mercenary Marc Spector. As Steven/Marc’s enemies converge upon them, they must navigate their complex identities while thrust into a deadly mystery among the gods of Egypt.

Mohamed Diab and Justin Benson & Aaron Moorhead directed Moon Knight, and Jeremy Slater is the show’s head writer. The series stars Oscar Isaac, Ethan Hawke, and May Calamawy. Kevin Feige, Louis D’Esposito, Victoria Alonso, Brad Winderbaum, Mohamed Diab, Jeremy Slater, and Oscar Isaac are executive producers, with Grant Curtis, Trevor Waterson, and Rebecca Kirsch as co-executive producers.

What do you think? Let us know in the comments. Moon Knight will debut on Disney+ on March 30th.