Moon Knight

[Matt Mortem]

Harry Treadaway would make a good Profile if they included that character.

 

[TheVileOne]

Moon Knight is an obscure lesser known character so he'd automatically be low on the totem pole.

 

[Stark Bauer]

Here's my take on Moon Knight for Netflix:

The Cast

Marc Spector: Rami Malek

At the center of it all is Marc Spector. He may be a little odd, but to everyone around him, including himself, he's led a perfectly uneventful life. Rising star Rami Malek is perfect for capturing the nuanced and complex character of Marc, blurring the innocence of a man living a perfectly programmed life with the unhinged darkness he's yet to discover lies deep inside of him.

Gena Landers: Annie Ilanzeh --- Cpt. Flint: Nick Offerman

Leading Marc's teammates on the MetaCrime Task Force are two of his allies from different periods in his long and comples comics history. Annie Illanzeh plays Gena Landers, Marc's closest friend on the force and a mother who struggles with the seperation from her family the job requires. I'm mostly familiar with Ilanzeh from her recurring guest spot on Person of Interest, and she exudes the confidence and personality to carry Gena. Nick Offerman then takes on the role of Cpt. Flint, leader of the task force and inherent sceptic of all things unexplained. Offerman's trademark deadpan humor and "Don't Give a Crap" attitude translate perfectly into a no-nonsense boss to hold the team together as things get insane.

Jean-Paul Duchamp: Aiden Gillen --- Buck Lime: Romany Malco

"Frenchie" is perhaps Marc's best-known ally. Here he is, of course serving as the team's driver. Aiden Gillen has all of the charm to pull off the "perfect gentleman" while carrying enough ominous mystery to act as a red herring to Moon Knight's actual identity. The show will also be sure to explore his sexuality (He having famously felt unrequited love for Marc through the years he served him) and will recieve as a romantic interest his fellow agent Buck Lime, played by Romany Malco. Malco is a great talent excellently suited to play opposite Gillen as the team's more brash risk-taker.

Raul Bushman: Michael K Williams --- Khonshu: Irrfan Kahn

Given the nature of the series, the shows main villains won't really have a ton of time to fully revel in their revealed villainous forms, so you have to choose actors who can dominate every second of their screentime. With Michael K. Williams as Bushman, you get someone who can absolutely carry the horrifying brutality of Marc's nemesis and fellow moon god avatar. Kahn, meanwhile, has to pull double duty, first acting a loving father in phone conversations with Marc. Once it's revealed that those "phone calls" were all inside our hero's head, he can pull off the elevation to playing a bitter diety whose calm, wise demeanor masks a burning desire to make humanity serve him once more.

Crawley: Kevin Chapman --- Marlene Alraune: Amanda Seyfried --- Grinning Man: Timothy Dalton

Marc's homeless informant Crawley will only hold a handful of appearences on the show, first before the "road trip" begins, as a witness and ally to the mysterious Moon Knight, and later as a "fellow inmate" in Marc's mindscape prison. But as a memorable supporting cast member, I selected Kevin Chapman to contribute his curmudgeonly wise-cracks and "down-on-his-luck" attitude to the character. Amanda Seyfried also guest stars as a mysterious woman from Marc's past who he can't seem to remember. Her presence as an actress carries a certain "odd", enigmatic air, allowing her to easily slip into the role. And lastly, setting up for Season 2, we have the legendary Timothy Dalton as the calm, collected killer tracking the team's path to wipe all evidence of their encounters under the rug with swift and brutal effeciency.

The Plot

When we meet Marc Spector, he is working as an agent for the new FBEC, Federal Bureau of Extraordinary Crime. He serves on a task force led by veteran detective Captain Flint, alongside Gena, an insightful young mother from the inner city and Jean-Paul DuChamp & Buck Lime, two ex-military detectives and lovers. Together, they investigate bizarre crimes with potentially metahuman origins. The team, however, has a “secret weapon”, a relationship with the mysterious vigilante known as Moon Knight, who’s nightly excursions into the underworld and army of homeless informants.

After wrapping a case with help from Moon Knight and the homeless Crawley, the team is tasked a major new operation. A serial killer known as “The Black Rose” has been traveling from city to city, murdering at random and removing the faces of his victims. He was almost caught after the most recent killing and, in his escape, displayed seemingly superhuman powers. The quintet of detectives hits the road for a cross-country manhunt, stopping along the way to gather clues while taking detours to investigate bizarre and frightening local urban legends, such as the Bunny Man Bridge.

Throughout the investigation, Gena and Flint become increasingly suspicious of Moon Knight and the way he seems to follow them. As they launch their own investigation into his true identity, Marc is troubled by the appearance of a woman who claims to know him, but he cannot recall: Marlene Alraune. Things escalate when Gena discovers that not only has Marc never actually received a call from his father, he is himself Moon Knight. This fact is just as shocking to Marc as anyone else, and he goes on the run. In hiding, Marlene returns to him and he slowly starts to regain his memory: Working as a mercenary for Raul Bushman, intervening to save Marlene, and being left for dead at the foot of the Khonshu shrine.

Meanwhile, the remaining team has cornered the Black Rose, but he kidnaps Gena’s children. Marc returns as Moon Knight to save them but is shocked and defeated when the Black Rose unmasks himself to reveal Raul Bushman, wearing, and seemingly drawing power from, a Khonshu pendant. Marc awakes in an insane asylum, where all of his friends from past episodes are fellow inmates. He is told that everything before has been a hallucination, and that he is in fact insane. Ultimately, he realizes it is all an illusion and fights back, confronting Khonshu himself inside his mindscape, where the ancient god has taken refuge. Khonshu reveals he is determined to hold sway on Earth once again, and has selected Marc and Bushman as his avatars to make that happen. Marc fights back however and breaks free from Khonshu’s spell, returning to the real world to defeat Bushman, destroying the pendant and removing the killer’s own face. He destroys the shrine, imprisoning Khonshu in his own head. Marc leaves with Marlene, Gena and her family are reunited, but all is not over. The Grinning Man, a paranormal “man in black” who has been erasing the team’s path, arrives to kill Flint and destroy all information on Marc, Bushman, and Khonshu.

​

Great casting! Thanks for your hard work. What kind of plot would you have for season 2 with The Grinning Man? He seems like a much more intriguing villain than the Black Rose. You kind of lost me when Marc started to battle Khonshu, it reminded me of a cartoon. How can it be done without it looking cheesy or losing the audience? Great post!

 

[Stark Bauer]

Moon Knight is an obscure lesser known character so he'd automatically be low on the totem pole.

they said the same thing about Guardians of the Galaxy and even Iron Man was obscure before 2008 when the movie was in pre-production (before it became a hit).

From Wikipedia:

In November 2005, Marvel Studios worked to start development from scratch,[41] and announced Iron Man as their first independent feature, as the character was their only major one not already depicted in live action.[6] According to associate producer Jeremy Latcham, "we went after about 30 writers and they all passed", saying they were uninterested in the project due to both the relative obscurity of the character and it being a solely Marvel production...In order to build awareness for Iron Man from the general public, and put him on the same level of popularity as Spider-Man or Hulk, Marvel conducted focus groups to help remove the general perception that the character was a robot.

 

[Kevin Roegele]

Possibly because they saw no compelling reason to make a movie about an utterly shameless Batman clone, when if they wanted to do such, they could just roll their own?

There's a lot more to Moon Knight than being a Batman clone.

 

[Iceman]

Yeah, I get the feeling people haven't read enough of his material if they think that.

 

[TheVileOne]

I agree that Moon Knight is more than just a Batman clone. I realize Marvel turned Guardians of the Galaxy into a huge franchise. But Moon Knight is probably even more obscure than the Guardians were, even after 2008.

Also, the character doesn't lend himself as well to a movie because he's a pretty dark and at times demented character.

 

[rogue trooper]

New Moon Knight comic writer Max Bemis neatly narrows down the character in this statement:

"I think for a long time Moon Knight has been about a man grappling with the fact that he has a mental illness," he continued. "The cool thing Jeff did is, he resolved that arc, for now at least. He basically left him OK with who he was, at least in terms of his split personality. I think there are many more interesting stories that come after the grappling with your demons - you may figure out what’s going on and how to live, but then you’ve got your entire life ahead of you and all the challenges. It’s no longer, 'Oh, I hate myself because I’m crazy! Who am I? Who is Konshu?' It’s, 'OK, I’m a crazy man, and I may or may not be an emissary of a moon god, it may all be in my head, but I kind of don’t care, and now I have to keep trying to make the world a better place and live a life.'"

....I hope that's what will come across on either a film of Netflix series also.


https://www.newsarama.com/35996-moo...e-his-ultimate-nemesis-for-marvel-legacy.html

 

[CaptainWagner]

Great casting! Thanks for your hard work. What kind of plot would you have for season 2 with The Grinning Man? He seems like a much more intriguing villain than the Black Rose. You kind of lost me when Marc started to battle Khonshu, it reminded me of a cartoon. How can it be done without it looking cheesy or losing the audience? Great post!

Thanks! I visualized the mindscape scenes based heavily on Lemire's most recent run on the Moon Knight title, and I think the Legion series was a good example of how mental duels can look on screen. It's not so much a physical fight as it is Marc out-thinking the elder god's mental traps.

Season 2 will focus a lot on Marc trying to unravel his forgotten past while the Grinning Man and his agents are trying to wipe out all evidence. This come to involve Marc's bother Randall, who has also become a victim of the conspiracy and is seeking vengeance.

I agree that Moon Knight is more than just a Batman clone. I realize Marvel turned Guardians of the Galaxy into a huge franchise. But Moon Knight is probably even more obscure than the Guardians were, even after 2008.

Also, the character doesn't lend himself as well to a movie because he's a pretty dark and at times demented character.

Yeah, the claims of him being "Marvel's Batman" are greatly exaggerated. He's a very layered character, but you're right, he wouldn't be done justice under the current Marvel Studios structure. But I feel the extended story-telling format of a Netflix show would be better suited for him anyway.

 

[rogue trooper]

Yeah, the claims of him being "Marvel's Batman" are greatly exaggerated. He's a very layered character, but you're right, he wouldn't be done justice under the current Marvel Studios structure. But I feel the extended story-telling format of a Netflix show would be better suited for him anyway.

I always say Moon Knight is as much Batman as Batman is Zorro, or The Shadow, or The Phantom.

 

[TheVileOne]

There are some obvious parallels with Moon Knight and Batman but also a lot of differences. It's a bit like Hyperion and Superman.

But I think the idea of Moon Knight is you can take aspects and elements that are similar to Batman and play around with them in ways the Batman character does not and cannot.

Like imagine if Batman was a little more unhinged and demented. You can debate a lot about Batman's mental well being and sort of having multiple personality disorder. Moon Knight has a lot of that going on.

 

[Dasher10]

Here's my take on Moon Knight for Netflix:

The Cast

Marc Spector: Rami Malek

At the center of it all is Marc Spector. He may be a little odd, but to everyone around him, including himself, he's led a perfectly uneventful life. Rising star Rami Malek is perfect for capturing the nuanced and complex character of Marc, blurring the innocence of a man living a perfectly programmed life with the unhinged darkness he's yet to discover lies deep inside of him.

Gena Landers: Annie Ilanzeh --- Cpt. Flint: Nick Offerman

Leading Marc's teammates on the MetaCrime Task Force are two of his allies from different periods in his long and comples comics history. Annie Illanzeh plays Gena Landers, Marc's closest friend on the force and a mother who struggles with the seperation from her family the job requires. I'm mostly familiar with Ilanzeh from her recurring guest spot on Person of Interest, and she exudes the confidence and personality to carry Gena. Nick Offerman then takes on the role of Cpt. Flint, leader of the task force and inherent sceptic of all things unexplained. Offerman's trademark deadpan humor and "Don't Give a Crap" attitude translate perfectly into a no-nonsense boss to hold the team together as things get insane.

Jean-Paul Duchamp: Aiden Gillen --- Buck Lime: Romany Malco

"Frenchie" is perhaps Marc's best-known ally. Here he is, of course serving as the team's driver. Aiden Gillen has all of the charm to pull off the "perfect gentleman" while carrying enough ominous mystery to act as a red herring to Moon Knight's actual identity. The show will also be sure to explore his sexuality (He having famously felt unrequited love for Marc through the years he served him) and will recieve as a romantic interest his fellow agent Buck Lime, played by Romany Malco. Malco is a great talent excellently suited to play opposite Gillen as the team's more brash risk-taker.

Raul Bushman: Michael K Williams --- Khonshu: Irrfan Kahn

Given the nature of the series, the shows main villains won't really have a ton of time to fully revel in their revealed villainous forms, so you have to choose actors who can dominate every second of their screentime. With Michael K. Williams as Bushman, you get someone who can absolutely carry the horrifying brutality of Marc's nemesis and fellow moon god avatar. Kahn, meanwhile, has to pull double duty, first acting a loving father in phone conversations with Marc. Once it's revealed that those "phone calls" were all inside our hero's head, he can pull off the elevation to playing a bitter diety whose calm, wise demeanor masks a burning desire to make humanity serve him once more.

Crawley: Kevin Chapman --- Marlene Alraune: Amanda Seyfried --- Grinning Man: Timothy Dalton

Marc's homeless informant Crawley will only hold a handful of appearences on the show, first before the "road trip" begins, as a witness and ally to the mysterious Moon Knight, and later as a "fellow inmate" in Marc's mindscape prison. But as a memorable supporting cast member, I selected Kevin Chapman to contribute his curmudgeonly wise-cracks and "down-on-his-luck" attitude to the character. Amanda Seyfried also guest stars as a mysterious woman from Marc's past who he can't seem to remember. Her presence as an actress carries a certain "odd", enigmatic air, allowing her to easily slip into the role. And lastly, setting up for Season 2, we have the legendary Timothy Dalton as the calm, collected killer tracking the team's path to wipe all evidence of their encounters under the rug with swift and brutal effeciency.

The Plot

When we meet Marc Spector, he is working as an agent for the new FBEC, Federal Bureau of Extraordinary Crime. He serves on a task force led by veteran detective Captain Flint, alongside Gena, an insightful young mother from the inner city and Jean-Paul DuChamp & Buck Lime, two ex-military detectives and lovers. Together, they investigate bizarre crimes with potentially metahuman origins. The team, however, has a “secret weapon”, a relationship with the mysterious vigilante known as Moon Knight, who’s nightly excursions into the underworld and army of homeless informants.

After wrapping a case with help from Moon Knight and the homeless Crawley, the team is tasked a major new operation. A serial killer known as “The Black Rose” has been traveling from city to city, murdering at random and removing the faces of his victims. He was almost caught after the most recent killing and, in his escape, displayed seemingly superhuman powers. The quintet of detectives hits the road for a cross-country manhunt, stopping along the way to gather clues while taking detours to investigate bizarre and frightening local urban legends, such as the Bunny Man Bridge.

Throughout the investigation, Gena and Flint become increasingly suspicious of Moon Knight and the way he seems to follow them. As they launch their own investigation into his true identity, Marc is troubled by the appearance of a woman who claims to know him, but he cannot recall: Marlene Alraune. Things escalate when Gena discovers that not only has Marc never actually received a call from his father, he is himself Moon Knight. This fact is just as shocking to Marc as anyone else, and he goes on the run. In hiding, Marlene returns to him and he slowly starts to regain his memory: Working as a mercenary for Raul Bushman, intervening to save Marlene, and being left for dead at the foot of the Khonshu shrine.

Meanwhile, the remaining team has cornered the Black Rose, but he kidnaps Gena’s children. Marc returns as Moon Knight to save them but is shocked and defeated when the Black Rose unmasks himself to reveal Raul Bushman, wearing, and seemingly drawing power from, a Khonshu pendant. Marc awakes in an insane asylum, where all of his friends from past episodes are fellow inmates. He is told that everything before has been a hallucination, and that he is in fact insane. Ultimately, he realizes it is all an illusion and fights back, confronting Khonshu himself inside his mindscape, where the ancient god has taken refuge. Khonshu reveals he is determined to hold sway on Earth once again, and has selected Marc and Bushman as his avatars to make that happen. Marc fights back however and breaks free from Khonshu’s spell, returning to the real world to defeat Bushman, destroying the pendant and removing the killer’s own face. He destroys the shrine, imprisoning Khonshu in his own head. Marc leaves with Marlene, Gena and her family are reunited, but all is not over. The Grinning Man, a paranormal “man in black” who has been erasing the team’s path, arrives to kill Flint and destroy all information on Marc, Bushman, and Khonshu.

​

Why Grinning man for Season 2? I agree with Bushman as the Season 1 big bad but Season 2 should be Shadowknight, Morpheus or Black Spectre.

I'd also change the plot for make Marc work for Bushman PMC who are fighting either HYDRA or The Hand in Egypt, have then betray Marc by shooting him off a ledge onto the altar of Khonshu when he says that the priceless artifacts in the lost temple belong in a museum. Same goes for Peter Alraune except he dies from the fall.

When Marc awakens, he finds himself upon Khonshu's altar with a head wound. Khonshu tells Marc that he must recover his artifacts from his old squad. Marc travels back to New York City where he sets out to kill all the members of his old unit who betrayed them and deliver the artifacts to the Museum of Natural History.

Taking up the new name of Jake Lockley, Marc winds up believing at times that he has always been Jake. Marc begins donning a grey hoodie, black balaclava and digital urban camo cargo pants and begins hunting down his old unit as the Moon Knight who again, becomes a completely new persona. While selling artifacts to the museum under the name Steven Grant, Marc becomes a very rich man and winds up founding a company as Steven only to find Steven becoming the dominant personality. As Marc grows richer, he falls in love with a museum curator named Marlene Alraune and slowly begins updating his costume into something that resembles both Declan Shelvey's and David Finch's designs while hiring a chopper pilot, moving into a luxury penthouse and replacing his rather loud firearms with silent cresent-shaped throwing knives.

Moon Knight eventually tracks down Bushman and kills him by cutting his face off while recovering the last artifact. Marc (or Steven in this case) reveals that he saw Marlene's father die and he's both Marc Spector and Moon Knight.

And some of this casting is really, really wrong. Aiden Gillen can't be Frenchie since he's Irish, not French and I don't know if he can pull off the accent. Michael K. Williams hasn't ever done an African accent to the best of my knowledge and we really need somebody who can. I imagine Raoul Bushman as a South African mercenary who eventually founds a PMC and takes over the country of Burunda and ruling it as a subsidiary from a Manhattan penthouse. Also, Rami Malek isn't Jewish.

 

[CaptainWagner]

Why Grinning man for Season 2? I agree with Bushman as the Season 1 big bad but Season 2 should be Shadowknight, Morpheus or Black Spectre.

I'd also change the plot for make Marc work for Bushman PMC who are fighting either HYDRA or The Hand in Egypt, have then betray Marc by shooting him off a ledge onto the altar of Khonshu when he says that the priceless artifacts in the lost temple belong in a museum. Same goes for Peter Alraune except he dies from the fall.

When Marc awakens, he finds himself upon Khonshu's altar with a head wound. Khonshu tells Marc that he must recover his artifacts from his old squad. Marc travels back to New York City where he sets out to kill all the members of his old unit who betrayed them and deliver the artifacts to the Museum of Natural History.

Taking up the new name of Jake Lockley, Marc winds up believing at times that he has always been Jake. Marc begins donning a grey hoodie, black balaclava and digital urban camo cargo pants and begins hunting down his old unit as the Moon Knight who again, becomes a completely new persona. While selling artifacts to the museum under the name Steven Grant, Marc becomes a very rich man and winds up founding a company as Steven only to find Steven becoming the dominant personality. As Marc grows richer, he falls in love with a museum curator named Marlene Alraune and slowly begins updating his costume into something that resembles both Declan Shelvey's and David Finch's designs while hiring a chopper pilot, moving into a luxury penthouse and replacing his rather loud firearms with silent cresent-shaped throwing knives.

Moon Knight eventually tracks down Bushman and kills him by cutting his face off while recovering the last artifact. Marc (or Steven in this case) reveals that he saw Marlene's father die and he's both Marc Spector and Moon Knight.

And some of this casting is really, really wrong. Aiden Gillen can't be Frenchie since he's Irish, not French and I don't know if he can pull off the accent. Michael K. Williams hasn't ever done an African accent to the best of my knowledge and we really need somebody who can. I imagine Raoul Bushman as a South African mercenary who eventually founds a PMC and takes over the country of Burunda and ruling it as a subsidiary from a Manhattan penthouse. Also, Rami Malek isn't Jewish.

Thanks for reading and offering feedback! I mentioned before that Randall/Shadow Knight would be in the 2nd Season.

But it's not like natural accents have ever held back actors before. Chadwick Boseman is American, yet perfectly embodies an African King as T'Challa. Ewan McGregor is Scottish, but has played everything from Frenchmen to Minnesotians. And I know Rami Malek isn't Jewish, neither was Roberto Benigni, that didn't stop him from blowing the world away in Life is Beautiful. Casting should come down first and foremost to who can best embody the character, not where they were born.

 

[Whatupman]

I'm still going with Jonathan Tucker(Justified, Hannibal, American Gods) for Moon Knight. He would be perfect for it, especially now that Kingdom tragically got cancelled.

 

[Breogan]

I always say Moon Knight is as much Batman as Batman is Zorro, or The Shadow, or The Phantom.

So somewhat inspired by.

 

[TheVileOne]

Yeah there are obvious similarities and parallels with Batman, but that's part of the fun and appeal of Moon Knight. You can play around with the idea of having a character who is sort of like Batman but can do things Batman cannot.

 

[Dasher10]

Thanks for reading and offering feedback! I mentioned before that Randall/Shadow Knight would be in the 2nd Season.

But it's not like natural accents have ever held back actors before. Chadwick Boseman is American, yet perfectly embodies an African King as T'Challa. Ewan McGregor is Scottish, but has played everything from Frenchmen to Minnesotians. And I know Rami Malek isn't Jewish, neither was Roberto Benigni, that didn't stop him from blowing the world away in Life is Beautiful. Casting should come down first and foremost to who can best embody the character, not where they were born.

But here's why Rami Malek would be particularly wrong. He's Arab. And Arabs and Jews notoriously don't get along with one another.

I remember back when Memoirs of a Geisha came out and a Chinese actress was playing a Japanese protagonist. That was a huge controversy in both countries since Japan's invasion of China during WWII isn't something that China has managed to get over while Japan remains incredibly nationalistic and xenophobic. It would honestly come across as culturally insensitive and make a ton of people on both sides of the Arab-Israeli conflict angry.

 

[TheVileOne]

Just give me a Jewish actor to play a Jewish superhero for the MCU. Do it Marvel! I need this!

 

[Dasher10]

Who's heard those Punisher rumors?

 

[TheVileOne]

https://mcuexchange.com/punisher-hero-cameo/

Doesn't mean it will be Moon Knight though.

 

[Matt Mortem]

That'd be one way to launch Moon Knight.

 

[KevTravels]

I'm still going with Jonathan Tucker(Justified, Hannibal, American Gods) for Moon Knight. He would be perfect for it, especially now that Kingdom tragically got cancelled.

He's a real good actor and certainly affordable and not a big name.

Someone mentioned Malek, but he's like 5'6 tops. Could he pull off Moon Knight?

 

[TheVileOne]

That'd be one way to launch Moon Knight.

Well it's not impossible. They launched Punisher in Daredevil, and they launched Luke Cage in Jessica Jones.

 

[pixen]

Fancasting actors who are already in shows is not a good idea. Rami Malek has a contract with USA that keeps him from doing any other tv series.

Though count me in for a Moon Knight show. I would love for it to happen on Netflix, along with an Elektra one...

 

[TheVileOne]

Sometimes actors can work on multiple shows at once. But yeah, it seems unlikely that an actor like Malek would do both.

Plus, Jewish actor for Marc Spector. That's what I want. He's the son of a rabbi! We got our Catholic hero in Daredevil, so we need our Jewish hero now!