One of the most unique live-action superhero projects on Marvel's upcoming docket is definitely the Moon Knight TV show that was announced last year. While it's definitely unfortunate that news about the series was largely non-existent in the year that have passed, the first big casting news is definitely major enough to make up for all the silence. It's being reported that Moon Knight's producers are in talks with Star Wars' latter-day trilogy star Oscar Isaac to take on the lead role, and that sounds downright amazing.
At this point, Oscar Isaac's casting has not yet been confirmed by Marvel or Disney+, as negotiations are reportedly happening as we speak, according to THR. The actor definitely has a lot of his plate for the near future, but it sounds like he might be able to carve out some room in the schedule to play another comic book badass. Especially considering he might not have much of a future within the Star Wars franchise, at least on the live-action front.
As fans no doubt remember, Oscar Isaac previously starred as the villainous Apocalypse for the 2016 feature X-Men: Apocalypse, the final-to-date ensemble pic for the titular mutants. Of course, since the X-Men franchise is part of Fox and not the Disney/Marvel umbrella, there's no direct conflict of interest with the actor taking on a more heroic (though just as dark) character from Marvel's storied history.
Umbrella Academy developer and writer Jeremy Slater is on board as the showrunner for Moon Knight, which will presumably feature Oscar Isaac as alter ego Marc Spector, a former Marine and pugilist who was betrayed and left for dead by an employer, only to be given a renewed existence (and superhuman abilities) thanks to the Egyptian moon god Khonshu. Having long been compared to Bruce Wayne and Batman, Moon Knight has faced a few character development shifts over the years to keep things interesting, and he's sometimes portrayed as suffering from multiple personality disorder, among other mental issues. If that's the case here, then audiences can likely expect to see Isaac putting the bulk of his acting talents on display.
Fans will be able to see Oscar Isaac taking on a bunch of different roles before Moon Knight comes into existence, too. Perhaps the most anticipated of the bunch is Denis Villeneuve's upcoming Dune adaptation, which was sadly pushed back to late 2021, but he's also been tapped to reprise the role of Gomez Addams in the animated feature The Addams Family 2. Two other projects tapped for 2021 releases are Paul Schrader's poker thriller The Card Counter and Brian Pestos' dramedy Big Gold Brick, which also stars Megan Fox and Lucy Hale. Also on the horizon are the HBO miniseries Scenes from a Marriage with Jessica Chastain, the scripted making-of flick Francis and the Godfather with Jake Gyllenhaal, James Grey's coming-of-age drama Armageddon Time with Anne Hathaway and Robert De Niro, and several others.
As exciting as this news is, there is of course the chance that Oscar Isaac's negotiations will fall through and he'll need to opt out of starring in Moon Knight. Or it might even be a situation similar to Tatiana Maslany's supposed She-Hulk casting, which the actress has seemingly denied, though possibly only because her own negotiations hadn't been finalized yet. But if we're lucky, zero obstacles will stand in the way of Isaac donning Moon Knight suit, and if we're really lucky, Disney+ will give fans a peek at what that costume looks like before another year of silence passes by.
Moon Knight doesn't yet have a release date (or even a general window) set for Disney+, but now that the casting process seems to be moving along smoothly, hopefully production can start and we can all learn when it'll hit streaming in the near future. While waiting, our Fall TV 2020 premiere schedule will keep you updated on everything coming to Disney+ and elsewhere soon.
