Oscar Isaac has been posting some pretty cool behind the scenes Moon Knight clips online since late March, which has been a treat for everyone following his production company, Mad Gene Media, over on Instagram. While Marvel has kept much of its prep for the forthcoming Disney+ series under wraps, Isaac hasn’t been shy about sharing his gruelling fight training for the role of The One You See Coming.
Training for a very physical part that includes all the Marvel bells and whistles can be tough, but the 42-year-old Star Wars and X-Men actor makes it look like a walk in the park, honestly. I’m 42 this month and groan when I bend down to pick something up. The idea of pulling off even a couple of the moves Isaac deftly dishes out in his latest video makes me wince. This is just one of the many, many reasons Isaac is an in-demand movie star getting the big bucks while I’m sat here typing about how an in-demand movie star is earning his big bucks.
See Isaac’s latest round of stabby Moon Knight fight training below…
And here’s a video Isaac posted back in March, where he also manages to look like a nimble, man-bun sporting ballerina. If I nap in a slightly askew position I get a frozen shoulder.
Moon Knight is a largely unexplored character outside of Marvel Comics, but Marvel Studios has made sure that its currently-in-production TV series about Marc Spector includes enough major talent in its ranks to have a great shot at success.
Along with Isaac, the show stars Ethan Hawke (playing an unnamed villain) and Ramy’s May Calamawy. On helming duties are the award-winning Mohamed Diab, who wrote the blockbuster Egyptian franchise El Gezira, and Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead (The Endless).
Moon Knight will introduce us to Spector (Isaac), a complex vigilante who also suffers from dissociative identity disorder. Spector finds himself close to death on an archaeological dig gone wrong in the comics, and the Egyptian god Khonshu revives him in exchange for becoming his avatar on Earth. Different, distinctive identities then accrue inside Llewyn Davis Spector, including rich playboy Steven Grant and cabbie Jake Lockley. Marvel says many of these identities will appear in episodes of Moon Knight against a backdrop of Egyptian iconography.
Hawke has only recently revealed why he decided to climb aboard the highly anticipated project, and it turns out that having Isaac attached helped things along considerably.
“A lot of it is Oscar, to me, to be honest with you,” Hawke told The Ringer. “I find him to be a very exciting player in my field. I like what he’s doing with his life. He reminds me of the actors, when I first arrived at New York, that I looked up to. Oscar’s younger than me, and I like the way he carries himself, and I like the way he thinks. And in general, good things happen when you’re in the room with people that you like the way they think, right?”
Marvel has not yet set a release date for Moon Knight on Disney+.