“I’m immensely relieved,” declares Jeremy Slater about the overwhelmingly positive reaction from fans to “Moon Knight.” He and the entire Marvel Studios team took a huge gamble by presenting something unique and unpredictable, rather than throwing together the origin story of yet another brooding and mysterious caped crusader. “I’m a Marvel fan first and foremost,” he says, adding for our recent webchat, “I’ve been at probably every midnight showing for every MCU movie going back 10 years. I’m one of those guys screaming his head off in ‘Endgame’ at every single moment, so the worst thing you can ever do is take a character you love and then screw it up for everyone!” Watch our exclusive video interview above.
Slater adapted “Moon Knight” on the Marvel comics featuring the beloved character of the same name. His vision as head writer was then shepherded during production by Egyptian helmer Mohamed Diab (who directed four of the six episodes) with collaborators Aaron Moorhead and Justin Benson directing the second and fourth episodes on the Disney Plus limited series, the sixth TV production in Phase Four of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, following “WandaVision,” “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier,” “Loki,” “What If…?” and “Hawkeye.”
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Oscar Isaac stars as Marc Spector (a.k.a. Moon Knight) and Steven Grant (a.k.a. Mr. Knight), two alters of a man with dissociative identity disorder (who we eventually learn is joined by a third alter, the mysterious Jake Lockley). Marc is a ruthless mercenary who becomes Moon Knight, the avatar (i.e. the manifestation of a deity in bodily form on earth) for the Egyptian moon god Khonshu, with his alter Steven, a mild-mannered British gift-shop employee who becomes Mr. Knight, Steven’s persona when he is Khonshu’s avatar. The series co-stars May Calamawy as Spector’s estranged wife Layla El-Faouly (who later becomes the Scarlet Scarab), Oscar nominee Ethan Hawke as villain Harrow and Oscar winner F. Murray Abraham, the voice of Khonshu. “Moon Knight” premiered March 30 to critical acclaim and strong word-of-mouth, with critics reserving special praise for Isaac and the show’s impressive production values and darker tone.
“The writing process was probably a year and a half, and in that time I think I single-handedly probably wrote between 1200 to 1500 pages of material,” Slater reveals. “That’s not counting all the work from my writers that they did over the first two to four weeks. So, you generate a tremendous amount of material because you’re trying to see what sticks and trying to see what [Marvel President] Kevin [Feige] responds to, and you’re trying to stay away from what other Marvel shows might be doing,” he explains. After all the work that he put into conceptualizing the characters and story, Slater says he was over the moon with the final result of what he created. “It’s such a relief to have it come out and to be able to follow along on Twitter, as the episodes are streaming and watch people react to all the beats you were so excited to share with them, all the big moments and reveals,” he shares. “It’s phenomenal! I had so much fun for all six weeks, just watching the fans react and watching the memes and the artwork and people crying on TikTok. It was incredible.”
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