Ethan Hawke Explains Why He’s Relieved To Enter The MCU In A Baggage-Free Project Like ‘Moon Knight’

Given his independent film cred and busy schedule busting out critically acclaimed projects like First Reformed and The Good Lord Bird, Ethan Hawke joining the cast of Marvel’s Moon Knight was definitely a surprising get for the upcoming Disney+ series. While he’s since revealed that he joined the project after personally being asked by Oscar Isaac at a coffee shop, Hawke dipping his toes in the MCU seems like an off-brand step for the actor. However, he would disagree with that.

While sitting down for a new interview following the Karlovy Vary Film Festival in Czechia, Hawke opened up about what attracted him to Moon Knight besides just getting a chance to work with Isaac. Via The Wrap:

If you were an actor in the ’50s, you know, they made Westerns. If you’re an actor in the 2020s, you’ve got Marvel. And I’m really fortunate because we’re dealing with a story that doesn’t have a lot of ancillary baggage. If you play Spider-Man or Batman, they’ve got so much baggage and the audience have such expectations. It’s like playing Hamlet — you can’t play it in a vacuum. You’re playing it in relationship to the other Hamlets. Whereas with “Moon Knight,” people don’t know much about it. It doesn’t have a lot of baggage. Oscar (Isaac) is giving an absolutely phenomenal performance, and it feels exciting to be a part of it with him.

Hawke makes a very good point. Moon Knight is one of Marvel’s more obscure characters, and unlike the other more prominent superheroes, he doesn’t really have a well-defined canon. In the past decade alone, Marvel Comics has toyed with several different approaches to the supernatural character while never seeming to land on one specific version. That gives the Disney+ series an even wider berth to nail down its own iteration for Moon Knight for the MCU, and it sure sounds like Hawke is loving the process.

“They’re extremely active, friendly,” Hawke said about working with Marvel. “They do good world-building and create space for actors. If you want to play, they want you to play.”