Ethan Hawke is exactly the sort of actor the Marvel Cinematic Universe loves to hire for important supporting or villainous roles. He’s a big star and a recognizable face all over the world, but he doesn’t come with the sort of A-list baggage that would enable him to overshadow the character that he plays.
It also helps that he’s very good at his job, racking up a string of acclaimed performances dating back a quarter of a century. While we still don’t know who he’s embodying in the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Disney Plus series Moon Knight, the project is lucky to have him on board, especially when we’re guaranteed some juicy scenes between Hawke and leading man Oscar Isaac.
Marvel Studios meets with a lot of talent, and sometimes it takes years for potential picks to become dedicated stars. However, Hawke revealed in a new interview that it was a chance meeting with Isaac that led to him boarding Moon Knight, after the two gushed over their mutual appreciation for each other’s work.
“Well, I heard about it from Oscar Isaac, who lives like, you know, three blocks down the street from me in Brooklyn. I was at a coffee shop. He came up to me, he’s like, ‘Hey, I really liked The Good Lord Bird’. I was like ‘Hey, cool, I really like your work. You’re amazing’. He’s like, ‘Hey, want to be in the Moon Knight with me?’ I was like, ‘Yeah.’ So, it happened the right way, you know? One of the first things that made it unlike anything I’ve ever done before is, I had to sign like 10,000 NDAs about what I would and would not say, which I’ve never done. And I don’t respect and I don’t honor. So, I’m happy to talk to you about it, completely. No, yeah.”
Shooting on Moon Knight has been underway since the end of April, and it was a long time after reports first started making the rounds that the studio got around to confirming Isaac as the titular antihero. So we could be waiting a while before we find out exactly who Hawke will be bringing to life.
The six-episode effort isn’t expected to premiere until the middle of 2022 at the earliest, and given how much the MCU abides by its sworn rules of secrecy, don’t expect too many Moon Knight details to leak ahead of time until Kevin Feige wants us to know.