MARVEL MARATHON DEEP DIVE
MOON
KNIGHT
Moon Knight premiered on Disney+ on 30 March 2022 with Oscar Isaac as Marc Spector and Steven Grant, two men who share one body and answer to the Egyptian moon god Khonshu. It ran six weekly episodes.
A CHARACTER LONG IN WAITING
HOW MOON KNIGHT REACHED THE SCREEN
Marvel Studios announced a Moon Knight series for Disney+ at the D23 conference in August 2019. Jeremy Slater was hired as head writer in November 2019, and Mohamed Diab was set to direct four episodes in October 2020. Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead joined in January 2021 to direct the other two. The budget was $147.9 million.
Filming was confirmed to be under way in Hungary by the end of April 2021, with the working title Good Faith, and took place in Budapest, at Wadi Rum in Jordan and in Atlanta. The production had hoped to film in Egypt but could not. Hesham Nazih composed the score, recorded with an orchestra at Synchron Stage Vienna, and the soundtrack album came out on 27 April 2022.
AN EGYPTIAN HERO’S STORY
HOW THE SERIES TREATED EGYPT
Diab’s pitch aimed to show Egypt and Egyptians more positively than he felt earlier Hollywood productions had, and the majority of smaller Egyptian roles went to Egyptian actors. In an interview on 30 March 2022, Diab gave his view of where the industry stood:
“Hollywood is taking better steps, hiring from every culture.”
Mohamed Diab, 30 March 2022
Dr. Paul Puri, a psychiatrist at UCLA, consulted on the series’ depiction of mental illness, and Diab cautioned that the series is set in a fictional, supernatural world in which some elements are “over-dramatize[d].”
ONE BODY AND SEVERAL GODS
WHO IS IN THE CAST
Oscar Isaac plays Marc Spector, Steven Grant and Jake Lockley, with May Calamawy as Layla El-Faouly, Ethan Hawke as Arthur Harrow and Gaspard Ulliel as Anton Mogart, in one of Ulliel’s last roles. F. Murray Abraham voiced Khonshu, with Karim El Hakim performing the character on set.
SIX WEEKLY EPISODES
HOW THE SERIES WAS RELEASED AND RECEIVED
The six episodes ran from “The Goldfish Problem” on 30 March 2022 to “Gods and Monsters” on 4 May 2022, with runtimes from 44 to 54 minutes. Parrot Analytics called it the most in-demand US series premiere of the first quarter of 2022.
Rotten Tomatoes lists an 86% critics’ score from 250 reviews and an 88% audience score, and its consensus calls the series “refreshingly weird.” Metacritic gives it 69 from 27 critics. James Dyer of Empire gave the first four episodes four stars out of five, calling them “a boldly bonkers affair,” while Daniel Fienberg of The Hollywood Reporter found it “more successful as an Oscar Isaac acting exercise than a superhero thrill-ride.”
THE REWATCH
ONE EMMY AND A SATURN AWARD FOR OSCAR ISAAC
The series won one Creative Arts Emmy, for sound editing on “Gods and Monsters,” alongside seven other nominations, and Oscar Isaac won the Saturn Award for best actor in a streaming series. The series has no explicit connections to other parts of the MCU, and Brad Winderbaum said in February 2025 that a second season was not planned.
In the Marvel Marathon it sits in the MCU release order guide between Spider-Man: No Way Home and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. It sits between The Daily Bugle Season 2 and Ms. Marvel in the MCU series order guide, and between The Daily Bugle Season 3 and Ms. Marvel in the Marvel TV shows in order guide. In the MCU timeline guide it comes between Deadpool & Wolverine and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.
QUICK ANSWERS
MOON KNIGHT WATCH QUESTIONS
Do I need to watch other MCU projects first?
No. The series has no explicit connections to other parts of the MCU, so it works as a standalone introduction to the character.
How many episodes does Moon Knight have?
Six, released weekly from 30 March to 4 May 2022.
Is there a second season?
Not announced. Brad Winderbaum said in February 2025 that a second season was not planned.
Which Marvel Marathon guides include Moon Knight?
It appears in the MCU release order, MCU series order, Marvel TV shows in order and MCU timeline guides. In the timeline it sits between Deadpool & Wolverine and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.
EDITORIAL NOTES
SOURCES AND UPDATES
Development, production, release, reception and awards details are checked against a series reference, an interview with the lead director and aggregator scores, cited individually below.