Moon Knight: Oscar Isaac Says Joining MCU Was "Very Difficult Decision" After X-Men, Star Wars

By Charlie Ridgely

Next week, Oscar Isaac takes Marvel fans on what could be the most unique tale set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe to-date. Moon Knight debuts on March 30th and while it might be a one-of-a-kind series for Marvel, it's hardly the first time Isaac has taken a prominent role in a massive franchise. The beloved actor starred in the Star Wars sequel trilogy as daring pilot Poe Dameron and as the titular villain in Fox's X-Men: Apocalypse. 

After those two experiences, it would not have been surprising if Isaac opted to stay away from big franchises going forward. During an interview ahead of the show's debut, Isaac explained that he was hesitant to join the MCU and take on the role of Moon Knight. However, the creative collaboration he was allowed by Kevin Feige and Marvel Studios proved too exciting for the actor to pass up.

"I had mostly reservations. I was a very difficult decision," Isaac said. "So it was really important that if I was going to do it, it had to feel like there was something really different and special and unique about it. One of the first things was I started to create this really weird, different character that wasn't necessarily on the page. And, in a way, was to get me interested, but was also to see if Kevin and everybody at Marvel was interested in a collaboration. I presented that character to them and Kevin said, 'Yeah, go for it,' gave me the green light with it. So I really felt like there was an opportunity to make a personal story on the biggest of stages."

Isaac plays multiple characters in one with his role in Moon Knight. He plays both Steven Grant and Marc Spector, two wildly different personalities living within the same body. 

"I'd never heard of Moon Knight before, and I collected comics when I was younger. I'd heard of Morbius, but I'd never heard of Moon Knight," Oscar told Jared Leto during a recent episode of Variety's Actors on Actors. "I don't know how the process was for you because it's a feature film, we're a limited series. 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' Moon Knight arrives on Disney+ on March 30th.

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