Moon Knight just concluded its first season run on Disney+, providing an elaborate exploration of Marc Spector's mental health and connection to the gods of Egyptian mythology. Suffering from dissociative identity disorder, Spector lives with multiple identities in his head, including both his mercenary self and British museum worker Steven Grant - with whom he built a close bond over time.
But across the six-episode Egyptian epic, there was always a sense of a third presence looming over everything, one far more brutal than even Spector. Viewers got their clearest tease of this in the third chapter as the titular hero blacked out in combat and brutally murdered several of Arthur Harrow's men.
Warning - the rest of this article contains spoilers for Moon Knight.
After the credits rolled in the finale, fans were finally introduced to this third alter, known as Jake Lockley. With Marc and Steven now free of Khonshu, the post-credits scene revealed the Spanish-speaking limo driver Lockley as the Moon God's newest avatar.
Over all six episodes, Oscar Isaac delivered an undeniably spectacular performance in bringing the three alters to life, and its now been revealed how it was his decision to bring his own Latino heritage into Jake Lockley.
How Oscar Isaac Improvized Moon Knight's Ending
During a recent interview with Entertainment Weekly, Moon Knight executive producer Grant Curtis revealed how Oscar Isaac improvised part of the finale's post-credits scene as Jake Lockley.
Curtis explained how they quickly revealed they had "an embarrassment of riches" with so many characters to work with:
"Well, it's one of the major components of the comic book. Marc Spector has dissociative identity disorder, and usually that centers around three different characters: Marc Spector, Steven Grant, and Jake Lockley. We realized early on in the development process, led by the great Jeremy Slater, that we had an embarrassment of riches. We had Marc Spector, we had Steven Grant, we had Jake Lockley, we had Arthur Harrow, we had Layla El-Faouly, we had Khonshu, we had Ammit."
The executive producer noted that the focus was on telling "Marc's most intimate, engaging journey," which ended up being a "two-hander" between Marc and Steven Grant. Therefore, the ending became the best place for Jake in order to tease "the new journey ahead:"
"It really came down to the fact that [we wanted] to tell Marc's most intimate, engaging journey. It really became a two-hander between Marc Spector and Steven Grant. That didn't leave Jake out of the picture, because we kind of thread Jake Lockley throughout, from episode 1 and beyond. But it really became evident that the best place to put him was at the end and make that the tag and [set up] the new journey ahead at the end of episode 6."
While Jake doesn't formally appear until the post-credits scene, Curtis pointed out that "Jake is present" from the get-go:
"Absolutely. Jake is present from episode 1, but we finally see him at the end of episode 6. It created a tag that I think really encapsulated the show as a whole."
When asked if Lockley's Spanish-speaking was important to Oscar Isaac, Curtis revealed "that was not on the page" and "one of the many contributions" Isaac made to the story:
"It was all Oscar. That was not on the page. Oscar brought so many narrative elements to this show, both in front of the camera and behind. He's a storyteller first and foremost, and that was just one of the many contributions he made to this series."
Jake Lockley's New Spanish Connections
Within Marvel Comics, Marc Spector is a Chicago-born mercenary, Jake Lockley is a New York taxi driver, and Steven Grant is an eccentric millionaire. Moon Knight made some changes to these traditional portrays for Disney+, as Grant was clearly far from rich, and Lockley was a Spanish-speaking limo driver.
The exotic nature of Lockley's vehicular service appears to indicate he may have inherited the wealth aspect of Grant, while his Spanish was probably a reference to Oscar Isaac's own Latino origin. Isaac improvising to carry some of his own identity into Jake Lockley truly demonstrates his commitment to the role and talent as an actor.
There's currently no clear indication of what spawned Lockley's existence in Marc's head, but he looks to be both the most brutal and Khonshu-loyal of the three personas. Fans ought to get more answers surrounding the history of Jake whenever Moon Knight next appears, but who knows when that will be as a Season 2 renewal remains up in the air.
Moon Knight is streaming now, exclusively on Disney+.
