10 Biggest Reveals Of The Moon Knight Super Bowl Trailer
The new Super Bowl trailer for Moon Knight didn't provide a ton of new material for fans of the upcoming streaming series, but there were a lot of new shots and intriguing hints. The Marvel Comics hero is one of the most complex superheroes from that universe, and it's clear from the new trailer that the MCU series is going to lean into the strange as far as it possibly can.
The Super Bowl trailer for Moon Knight adds some layers to the story of Stephen Grant - or Marc Spector, or both - as he struggles with his identity. It also provides some fascinating hints to the identity of the villain of the show, played by Ethan Hawke. Exciting clues suggest this is going to be one of the most inventive MCU shows yet, but also very faithful to the original comic book source material.
The new Super Bowl trailer builds on the extreme fatigue of Stephen Grant. He's shown running late for a bus and then falling asleep against another person on the bus once he finally catches up to it. The idea of sleep deprivation is a new wrinkle to the Moon Knight mythos.
In a voiceover, the character says he's not able to tell the difference between being awake and his dreams, which casts doubt on a lot of what is seen in the trailer. Grant could be dreaming all of it, or there could be something more complex going on.
Most comic book fans know Moon Knight has a dissociative personality disorder. This is made clear in the trailer, where Stephen Grant gets a phone call from a woman who calls him Marc. He doesn't know who Marc is, but comic fans do.
In the comic books, Marc Spector is Moon Knight, a mercenary who discovers an ancient Egyptian tomb and becomes Moon Knight. Stephen Grant is one of his personalities, but in the comics, he's a billionaire and doesn't work in a museum.
One of the most intriguing shots from the new trailer hints that Marc Spector may have died. He falls from a cliff and then is seen shocked to be alive, as a mysterious and frightening mummified figure approaches from behind him. This is the Egyptian deity Khonshu.
Moon Knight derives his powers from Khonshu, one of the most powerful magical beings in Marvel Comics, including the ability to come back from the dead. Marc Spector has died and been brought back to life by Khonshu on a number of occasions.
The new trailer gives fans the best look yet at the show's villain, played by Ethan Hawke. Hawke seems to be some kind of cult figure who has the power to command people to do what he wishes, as seen when a group of people all bow before him at once.
He may not be able to command Moon Knight, though. He tells Stephen Grant "There is chaos in you," something that seems to surprise the Ethan Hawke character. He tells him to embrace the chaos, an interesting idea given the villain seems to be about control.
An intriguing aspect of the new trailer is the recurring motif of a crocodile. It's seen in a few different shots, most notably as the almost 8-bit background of an old flip phone. A promotional still from the series shows Hawke holding a cane with a pair of crocodile heads on top of it.
The phone could belong to either Stephen Grant or Ethan Hawke's character, said to be Arthur Harrow. Arthur Harrow is one of the most powerful Moon Knight villains in the comics, but he doesn't have any association with crocodiles there.
Ethan Hawke may be Arthur Harrow, but he is likely a very different take on the character. In fact, he could be a version of the Egyptian figure Ammut, the Devourer of the Dead, a villain Moon Knight has faced in the comics.
Another new shot in the trailer shows he has a tattoo on Hawke's arm of a pair of scales. The crocodile motif repeats in the scales, and in Egyptian mythology, Ammut is often depicted with the head of a crocodile, as they were in recent Moon Knight comic books.
The streaming series promises a lot of psychological intrigue, but it's clear there's going to be a lot of action as well. One of the best shots of the new trailer shows Moon Knight flying into action, with his cape snapping into his iconic crescent shape.
It's not clear who he's fighting in the shot, but it seems to be a group of armed men protecting a unique glass pyramid. Several statues can be seen inside, and it's likely that this location is connected in some way to Ammut.
The new trailer also gives fans the best look yet at Moon Knight's costume. Moon Knight is one of the simplest costumes in design in the comics, allowing for broad interpretation, but the MCU version is remarkably comic book accurate.
Some consideration has been given to practical details, with mummy-style bandages seeming to hold the costume together. But the entire outfit follows the look and shape of the costume down to its iconic teardrop point in the hood, an element present in the costume from early on.
Moon Knight has a broad array of weapons in the comics, and his most iconic ones are on full display in the trailer. Moon Knight is seen using golden crescent darts. These have a boomerang-like aspect to them that allows sends them back to him after he throws them.
Moon Knight relies heavily on his crescent darts in some of the best Moon Knight comics of the '70s and '80s, but his earliest versions were silver in nature. This is because he started off fighting a werewolf in his first appearance in Werewolf By Night #32.
It's really on hinted at in the new trailer, but there is another version of Moon Knight in the series. A promotional still from Empire Magazine makes clear that Mr. Knight, one of the character's most fascinating modern incarnations, will appear.
Mr. Knight wears an all-white business suit with a pared-down mask, giving the character an instantly iconic look. The MCU version follows it to the letter, while still embroidering the suit with many fine details reflecting the Egyptian motifs of the show.