00:00 Men will literally become the avatar for the Egyptian god of vengeance instead of going
00:04 to therapy.
00:05 That's the definition of a red flag, isn't it?
00:08 We're breaking down episode one of Moon Knight.
00:10 Hey guys, I'm Laz Sharma, senior content producer at CinemaBlend and Moon Knight expert.
00:23 Disney+ just premiered episode one of Moon Knight and today we're breaking it down.
00:28 In there, something wicked.
00:30 Check it out.
00:33 What's a TV show without a good protagonist?
00:37 Well buckle up because this show actually has a couple of options for us to follow.
00:41 Now we're first introduced to Stephen Grant.
00:43 He's a timid museum worker, he's English, he also has a crazy sleeping disorder, but
00:49 more importantly, Stephen's expertise in Egyptology will definitely come into play
00:53 later so it's going to be important that he knows his stuff.
00:56 They believed you needed your heart to be judged in the underworld and only the worthiest
01:00 would be allowed to pass through the field of reeds.
01:03 So basically he's a lonely nerd who's found solace in his hobbies.
01:07 Can't relate.
01:08 Nah, you're right.
01:09 I mean I guess there are stranger things that people do.
01:12 What's important about Stephen is he's our eyes of the series because he's learning about
01:17 the mystery that surrounds him along with us in the audience.
01:20 But with all these jarring edits and cuts and the people around him telling him that
01:24 he's crazy, we can't trust that Stephen is necessarily the most reliable narrator
01:29 because it all feels real to him.
01:31 When we start seeing him in different scenarios in different locations, you start to confuse
01:36 yourself a bit and think yeah maybe this is just a dream sequence or a flashback.
01:41 What am I doing?
01:42 What am I doing?
01:43 I don't even have my license.
01:45 That is until we get introduced to Mark Spector.
01:47 Stephen, you need to stop.
01:51 Who said that?
01:53 Now if you're a fan of the Moon Knight comics, you might recognize the main protagonist of
01:57 the series to be Mark Spector, which we get a little glimpse of by the end of the episode
02:02 here.
02:03 Now he seems to be haunting Stephen in a way.
02:05 You hear his voice, you see him through really interesting reflection shots, but we don't
02:10 necessarily get a full intro to who this is.
02:14 Inside of this episode, we know that Mark is not English.
02:18 He seems to be a much more serious, no-nonsense kind of guy and he really, really wants to
02:23 control the body that both he and Stephen share.
02:26 You're not gonna die.
02:30 Let me save us.
02:32 But it needs to be said that this is not an origin story for Mark becoming Moon Knight.
02:37 This is an origin story for Stephen Grant in the world of Moon Knight.
02:41 Me?
02:42 Hiya.
02:43 He's discovering these different sides to him and these powers for the first time alongside
02:47 us.
02:48 If he was the protagonist of the show, it would look very different and I for one am
02:52 glad that we're following Stephen's eyes throughout this process.
02:57 Something that we have to talk about though is how good Oscar Isaac is in this role.
03:01 His transformation between Stephen and Mark is so distinct.
03:05 He's a little taller and more stern and really, really intimidating looking as Mark, but as
03:10 Stephen he's kind of sweet and aloof and you're rooting for him and he's genuinely funny.
03:16 I love that film.
03:23 Oscar Isaac is phenomenal in this role, but I think what's gonna keep people coming back
03:27 week to week is gonna be seeing how these different characters eventually come together
03:32 to form the hero Moon Knight.
03:35 Now of course this is an adaptation of a comic series, so we're gonna have to pick apart
03:39 what's different from the source material.
03:42 In the comics we know Moon Knight consists of multiple personalities, specifically Mark
03:46 Spector, mercenary in charge.
03:49 He is our main protagonist, but inside of his head because of his DID, we also have
03:54 Jake Lockley, a cab driver.
03:56 We have Stephen Grant, a playboy millionaire.
03:59 These are both characters that we don't necessarily see in this series.
04:03 Now Stephen Grant in our series is aloof.
04:06 He doesn't seem to have a lot of money and he's definitely no Bruce Wayne.
04:10 That's actually crushing to hear.
04:11 And Jake Lockley has yet to appear in the first episode and remains to be seen if he
04:15 will show up in the show at all.
04:18 Now in the comics it's also important to note that Moon Knight is his own separate entity
04:23 inside of Mark's head.
04:25 Now we don't know how that will be portrayed in the series so far because we only get that
04:29 quick shot of Moon Knight at the end of the episode, but we're hoping that we get different
04:33 personalities coming through through Oscar Isaac's performance in the rest of the series.
04:39 We've already talked about how Stephen being the dominant personality here is much different
04:44 from the comics, but how much more is going to change?
04:47 That remains to be seen since we're only on episode 1, but I can say it looks and feels
04:52 a lot like a Moon Knight comic would.
04:55 Now despite that, there are a couple other departures worth noting.
04:59 Like who is Layla?
05:00 In the comics Mark has a long time love interest named Marlene, but Marlene remains to be seen
05:06 in this series so far, so I have to assume that Layla might be a replacement for that.
05:11 We'll have to see.
05:14 Another interesting departure for the comics is our villain, Arthur Harrow.
05:18 Now in the comics he was a Nobel Prize winning scientist for his work in pain theory, but
05:24 he doesn't look like that in this series.
05:26 He's a cult leader.
05:27 Let's get into that.
05:32 Now not much is known about Arthur Harrow in this universe other than the fact that
05:36 he likes walking around with glass in his sandals, he has a scale tattoo that's magic,
05:41 and he serves the Egyptian goddess Amit.
05:47 What's interesting about these scales is that he uses them to judge people and it seems
05:50 like he mummifies them or sucks their life source out which makes him a pretty formidable
05:56 foe.
05:57 So how is that going to play into how he interacts with Oscar Isaac's Mark Spector later down
06:01 the road?
06:02 Well, it seems like he knows him.
06:04 He recognizes his face but we don't necessarily know what their relationship is.
06:08 What we do know is that Arthur is looking for a scarab, he's trying to find Amit and
06:12 serve her, whatever that means.
06:15 And also what's up with the glass and the sandals?
06:17 I need to know.
06:18 We've never really seen a villain like him before in the MCU, so considering that he's
06:23 being played by Ethan Hawke, I think we have a lot more to expect from Arthur Harrow.
06:30 Now obviously after episode 1 we're all going to have some lingering questions, but here
06:34 are some of mine.
06:35 Can we trust Khonshu?
06:36 He's an Egyptian deity that we've never seen before in the MCU.
06:40 I'm really curious to see how he uses Mark and Steven.
06:45 We'll have to see how that relationship shakes out.
06:47 I'm also curious about Layla.
06:49 How is she going to play into the story?
06:51 How much is she going to inform Steven on her relationship with Mark since she seems
06:56 to know him pretty well?
06:58 And we keep referencing Amit, another goddess in the Egyptian Enyad.
07:02 I wonder what is exactly her objective here, using Arthur for her mission, and how much
07:08 does it differ from Khonshu's?
07:10 That's definitely a question we're going to want to keep up to date on.
07:18 Now we've heard Grant Curtis the producer speak out on this, and everyone's been speculating,
07:24 but how does this connect to the MCU?
07:27 So far, it doesn't really.
07:29 We know it's a Disney+ show, we know that it's created by Marvel Studios, but there's
07:33 no references to other characters.
07:36 This stands alone on its own.
07:38 This is Mark Spector and Steven Grant's story, and I for one am so glad that we have something
07:44 that a new fan could watch for the first time and fall in love with the MCU in a very different
07:49 way.
07:50 The MCU is getting weird, guys.
07:52 It's going to get dark.
07:53 There's going to be spirits and demons.
07:56 It's gonna get crazy, and I'm here for it.
07:58 [MUSIC PLAYING]
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