By David Betancourt
The first offering from Marvel Studios in 2022 is a psychological thriller featuring a nocturnal vigilante with multiple personalities.
"Moon Knight," starring Oscar Isaac in the titular role, is also the first of the studio's Disney Plus series to not have any apparent connections to the past decade of the Marvel Cinematic Universe - at least initially.
Despite the lack of Avengers, make no mistake: This is indeed an MCU event.
Here are six things to know about Marvel's "Moon Knight":
- Who is Moon Knight and when was he created?
Moon Knight made his Marvel Comics debut in 1975 with a guest appearance in "Werewolf by Night" No. 32.
The character was created by Doug Moench and Don Perlin and in 1980 appeared in his own self-titled series by Moench and artist Bill Sienkiewicz.
In the comics, Marc Spector, a mercenary, awakens after a near-death experience and is placed next to a statue of the Egyptian god of the moon, Khonshu.
He's determined to leave behind his violent past and fight for justice in the white-cloaked guise of Moon Knight.
Spector develops multiple personalities, including Jake Lockley, a taxi driver, and Steven Grant, a billionaire - although in the streaming series, Steven is a disgruntled British museum employee.
Steven, at least initially, is the dominant personality in the series, never sleeping, perhaps hoping to keep his other personalities from taking over.
But it appears no matter which personality is in control of our protagonist's mind, his Moon Knight superhero persona will take over when he must - sometimes in a mummy-like superhero suit with a cape and other times with an all-white tailored suit and tie. The question becomes: Is each Moon Knight the same?
How big of a deal will he be?
Moon Knight doesn't have the instant recognizability factor of, say, the Hulk or Captain America, characters that even non-comic-book fans are familiar with.
A Disney+ show - and a well-known actor playing the role - can change that quickly, however.
Which explains why Elizabeth Olsen's Scarlet Witch is now one of the MCU's most important characters after the success of "WandaVision." Moon Knight is known mostly by avid comic book readers but could become a household name.
Could Moon Knight show up somewhere else in the MCU?
So much of the MCU experience is the connected narrative, with new stories being a part of what came before. "Moon Knight" doesn't lean on the first decade of the MCU, at least through the first four episodes, but the character could still show up elsewhere on Disney+ or even in future theatrical releases.
The "Werewolf by Night" comic in which Moon Knight made his debut is being developed into a Halloween special for Disney Plus starring Gael García Bernal as the wolfman-like title character - there could be a battle brewing there.
And there are other new MCU characters that veer more toward the dark and supernatural side, such as Mahershala Ali's vampire hunter Blade and Kit Harington's Black Knight (both hinted at in "The Eternals"), who could team up with Moon Knight.
Who is Ethan Hawke's character, Arthur Harrow?
Arthur Harrow is the main antagonist in "Moon Knight," someone who encourages this series's titular hero to embrace the chaos inside his mind instead of trying to keep it dormant.
Harrow has only ever appeared in one comic, 1985's "Moon Knight: Fists of Khonshu" No. 2.
That lack of source material gives head "Moon Knight" writer Jeremy Slater and director-producer Mohamed Diab a clean slate to make the villain into someone Marvel fans have never seen before.
Hawke has said that he based his performance on cult leader David Koresh and that his character will seem to know more about being Moon Knight than even Moon Knight himself.
What's Moon Knight up to in the comics now?
Diab recently told The Washington Post that Jeff Lemire and Greg Smallwood's 2016 "Moon Knight" series was a heavy influence on the live-action series. But in July, Marvel Comics debuted a new "Moon Knight" series written by Jed MacKay and illustrated by Alessandro Cappuccio.
Moon Knight violently protects all those around him while being at odds with Khonshu, the moon god that bestowed his superhero identity.
A second, four-issue Moon Knight anthology series, "Moon Knight: Black, White & Blood," will debut in April with multiple writers and artists, including Jonathan Hickman, Marc Guggenheim and Chris Bachalo.