Ethan Hawke Signed To Play Marvel’s Next Big Villain
Ethan Hawkes is heading over to Marvel, but he isn't going to be a hero. Instead, he's just been cast as one of their new villains.
Ethan Hawke, for as long as his resume has become over the years, has mostly stuck to conventional roles throughout his career. Sure, there’s the random Western in there or quasi-horror flick, but for the most part, he’s taken and excelled in roles that are of the more romantic and standard variety. But now he’s branching out a bit into a new slot, the comic book movie genre of all places. And he’s not even going to be the good guy here. No, Ethan Hawke is signing on to play the main villain in the upcoming Moon Knight series.
It’s not totally clear which antagonist Ethan Hawke will play on Moon Knight though the best guess is it will be Roaul Bushman. In the original Moon Knight comics, Bushman is the former employer of Marc Spector, who ultimately becomes the titular character. As the story goes, the two are on an Egyptian archeological dig and Bushman tries to kill Spector in an effort to pillage the site. Spector is saved by a God who grants him his powers and away you go. Since this show is an origin story of the character, casting Hawke as Bushman would make a lot of sense.
In the comics, Roaul Bushman and Spector meet when both are acting as mercenaries fighting in various conflicts. During that ill-fated encounter which ultimately turned Spector, Bushman is also brought back from the dead. Though he doesn’t have any true powers to speak of, the dude was a hard-nosed fighter, can handle a weapon, and definitely has a vendetta against Spector. It’s easy to picture Ethan Hawke leaning into this role.
Ethan Hawke will play the villain opposite Oscaar Isaac who’s been cast as Spector/ Moon Knight. Director Mohamed Diab is on board to helm the first six episodes and Jeremy Slater will act as showrunner. He’d previously penned 2015’s Fantastic Four. Also joining the cast is May Calamawy.
Ethan Hawke is fresh off an amazing run on Showtime’s The Good Lord Bird. In it he played John Brown who led an abolitionist raid on Harpers Ferry, West Virginia back in 1859. The show received massive critical acclaim, sitting at 98% on Rotten Tomatoes with Hawke garnering tons of praise for his acting in the role.
Adding Ethan Hawke to the cast is such a cool sign for Moon Knight which is part of Marvel’s stable of shows in their Phase 4. It will join a slew of other productions coming out that greatly expand the universe and introduce a number of new characters. But for now, we’ll have to wait a bit to get these guys up on screen together. The show isn’t slated to hit the small screen until sometime in 2022.
Next up for Ethan Hawke is The Northman in which he stars alongside Alexander Skarsgard and Willem Dafoe. They’ll play Vikings in the 10th century with Hawke playing the role of the clan’s king. Between this, and now Moon Knight, we are getting to see the actor in decidedly new and different roles.
