Marvel’s Moon Knight makes his way to the Marvel Cinematic Universe in the brand new series on Disney+. Starring Oscar Isaac as lead, the series follows Steve Grant; a mild-mannered man working at a British gift shop who becomes aware that his life isn’t as it appears to be. As Grant slowly uncovers his multiple personalities he also learns of his superhero alter ego known as the Moon Knight.

Moon Knight is a 2022 superhero series, it is produced by Marvel Studios and distributed by Disney Platform Distribution. It airs exclusively on Disney+ with episodes premiering weekly.

Editor’s Note: Spoilers for Moon Knight and it’s source material may be present within this review.

Often compared to being Marvel’s equivalent to DC’s Batman, an MCU adaptation of Moon Knight has been a long time coming. With phase four being much more broad and open to taking risks there was no time like the present for the character to make his way to Marvel’s ever-growing live-action universe. With the series out now on Disney+ it’s becoming more clear that Marvel Studios will be making several experimental series and films as the old guards such as Iron Man and Captain America take their respective leaves with some new seats at the Avengers table being made available.

THE GOOD: Steve Grant is a mild-mannered museum worker who gets consistently walked over. He suffers from consistent blackouts often waking in strange places. Because of this he chooses to indulge in several methods of self torture to stay awake or remain in his apartment such as walking with broken glass in his shoes or chaining himself to his bed. After failing to stay awake he finds himself awake in another country where he witnesses cult activity. The leader of the cult recognizes Grant as a “thief” and has his men attack him, but Grant kills them after a mini blackout. As he escapes he begins hearing voices in his head who interact with and guide him through the cult’s attack. 

Grant learns that he’s become in possession of a special golden scarab which the cult leader named Arthur Harrow wants to acquire on behalf of ancient Egyptian goddess named Ammit. Grant’s personalities gain control of his body on and off as he blacks out & Grant becomes aware of their movements. He finds a burner phone hidden in his ceiling belonging to a personality named Marc Spector a trained assassin. While working late at the museum Grant is cornered by Harrow who explains himself and his alignment to Ammit the goddess that wants to eliminate choice by “healing the world”. Harrow gives Grant a taste of the cult’s reach and power by revealing several members who work at the museum are actually in the cult before leaving. Later that night while doing inventory Grant is attacked by a monster summoned by Harrow and is trapped in a bathroom. His reflection interacts with him begging for control of the body so they can defend themselves. Upon agreeing to do so Grant transforms into the Moon Knight and kills the monster. 

I mentioned in the opening that Marvel is currently going through a bit of an experimental phase with what they’re doing in the MCU in regards of world, tone, and perspective. This has never been truer with Moon Knight. It’s become rather clear that Kevin Feige and co. really want to introduce some kind of horror element into the MCU we’ve seen bits and pieces of it here there. From small teasers like darker content being toyed around with in Falcon & The Winter Soldier & Black Widow. The darker content is really kicks up a notch in Moon Knight as does their apparent intentions to amp up rougher and straight up horror elements. After all Blade is getting rebooted for the MCU soonish and a full on R-rated Deadpool 3 has been in active development the last couple of years. I think what we’re going to see is Marvel (and more appropriately Disney) getting more and more comfortable on how R/MA-rated they can actually get leading to an eventual MCU subgenre of the content. 

Disney just recently added the heavily TV-MA rated Netflix Marvel Universe on Disney+ with plans for those shows to likely be revived beginning with Daredevil which has already debuted in the MCU. The reason I mentioned this is because Moon Knight is exactly as what I described what appears to be Marvel & Disney’s future plans. It’s dark, gritty, and even a bit bloody. Not quite to a gore level (yet anyways), but definitely more so than what we’ve seen in years past with the MCU. While some may not agree I’d say it’s currently at surface level and will probably even cross the line come series end. Moon Knight is a superhero series that wants to lean on it’s potential as a horror series and does so quite well in the first episode. Sure the signature comedy you’d come to expect from virtually any MCU property today is there but it’s not as leaned on heavily. 

Oscar Isaac & Ethan Hawke as Steven Grant/Marc Spector & Arthur Harrow play off of each other well. Grant is the loser loner who has a bit of pathetic to him he even “converses” with a statue street performer when he’s feeling down. Harrow is a leading man who seemingly has everything all together. Their polar opposites dynamic helps set the stage for the surrounding world building of the show and the ever expanding mythical lore of the MCU. Speaking of mythical lore. Marvel made a bold change to Moon Knight for the Disney+ series by actually making him a mythical being. From what I understand in the source material he was just kind of some guy with no real powers (hence the Batman comparisons) outside of like mystic foresight or something along those lines? But here he actually has some powers related to mystic forces and Grant’s split personalities even have a connection to it. It’s a neat change that I’m sure fans of the character wouldn’t have expected but will ultimately be ok with. 

THE BAD: As I said earlier Moon Knight is a bit darker compared to previous Marvel offerings so families may not want to show this one to the kids as it will likely get darker. Disney is getting more comfortable with R & MA rated content weekly so you may want to do some homework with future adaptations that have a history of much more mature stories and tones. Moon Knight is such an example of this renewed comfortability. 

OVERALL THOUGHTS: Moon Knight appears to be an appetizer for future additions to Disney & Marvel’s already extensive library of content. If an R-rated universe is truly in the cards of the Marvel Cinematic Universe then this series works as an excellent pilot for those plans. While we haven’t seen much acting outside of the duo Isaac & Hawke’s respective performances kill it and episode one provides more than enough detail to their worlds to keep your attention glued as the series moves forward. Otaku Dome gives Moon Knight episode one an 85 out of 100.