Moon Knight star Ethan Hawke addressed the chances that he'll return to the MCU after his run on Disney+ in 2022.
Even for the success it had during its six weeks on Disney+, Moon Knight's future remains one big mystery as fans are still waiting to find out where Marc Spector will make his return. After all, Oscar Isaac's solo series set up a powerful new hero with ties to the supernatural and Egyptian mythology and brought thriling new characters like Ethan Hawke's Arthur Harrow into the mix.
In the post-credits scene from Episode 6, Harrow found himself face-to-face with Khonshu and Marc Spector's long-hidden third alter Jake Lockley, who appeared to shoot Harrow in the back seat.
But with the villain's future still up in the air, even after that moment, Ethan Hawke shared his thoughts on whether fans will see his villain again anytime soon.
Ethan Hawke Looks at His Marvel Future
Speaking with The Playlist, Moon Knight star Ethan Hawke looked back to his time working with Marvel Studios and teased the chances of coming back for future projects.
One of the biggest reasons he joined Moon Knight in the first place was the passion he saw in his co-star, Oscar Isaac, who "really wanted to play that part" and was going to give the best performance he possibly could:
"And I saw a real opportunity with Oscar Isaac for Moon Knight. There was a fire inside Oscar about that project. He really wanted to play that part. And that’s a good sign. With Oscar, I could tell he was going to do his damnedest to give an outstanding performance inside a blockbuster [laughs]."
Seeing that passion, he described the experience as "two actors in the middle of a big swashbuckling event piece," sharing how great of a time they had together and how much support they got from the crew at Marvel Studios:
"And I thought, 'Well, hell, I’d like to help him try to do that.' It was just two actors in the middle of a big swashbuckling event piece. We could at least try to do what we do inside of it. And I really had a great time, to be honest. The exciting thing about the people at Marvel is that they love actors. They’re very generous towards actors, and they really understand that if there’s a likely high correlation—if an actor is really turned on to give an outstanding performance— the chances of the audience responding well to that are very high. What we don’t like is audience members are watching somebody phone it in, right?"
Hawke continued to heap praise upon Isaac for his work in taking "this extremely challenging part and [jumping] off the cliff" into his work:
"We love to see passion, commitment, and desire, and watching somebody jump off a high dive is thrilling. And so, to watch Oscar take this extremely challenging part and jump off the cliff, man, I loved it. So, for me, in many ways, you know, it’s never what you do, but how you do it."
When asked if he would return to the MCU, he offered nothing definitive besides a desire to move into the live theater medium, which is truly driving him forward at the moment:
"I really don’t know. There are so many things I want to do [outside of Marvel]. With the pandemic lingering around in the rearview mirror a little bit—knock on wood—I feel drawn to doing a play. I find that top of my mind again as I walk down the street and think, 'When am I going to get back on the stage again?' Because that always feels healthy. It turns me on, and it turns my brain on in a way."
He looks forward to the idea of not being worried about the extra parts of making a movie or TV show such as reception and financial returns:
"There’s so much energy in the film community about commercial interests; it’s just so omnipresent. How did the film do? What’s it going to make financially? How’s it going to connect with an audience? And there’s just something wonderful as a storyteller, as you said, not to be concerned with that. Let’s just kind of touch the true flame of it. Let’s get some people in a room together and sing them a song or tell ’em a story. The theater constantly reorients my brain, so hopefully, that’s a thing sometime soon."
Will Arthur Harrow Return in the MCU?
Although Moon Knight made every attempt to convince fans that Ethan Hawke's Arthur Harrow is dead after his encounter with Jake Lockley, as the saying goes, nobody is ever truly dead in a comic book movie. And particulatly considering that Episode 6 made a point not to show Harrow when he supposedly took a bullet to the head, the chest, or elsewhere, many believe that he's still up and kicking after that scene.
At the moment, Marvel has confirmed absolutely nothing about whether Moon Knight will get a second season or about where Isaac's hero may show up next in the MCU. But on top of that, it seems that Hawke is content with the work he's done on camera, turning his focus to a new avenue over the coming months and years.
Moon Knight Season 1 is now streaming on Disney+.
