Moon Knight Premiere Overtakes Every Disney+ Marvel Show But One
This is quite an impressive feat for Moon Knight, a Marvel series that doesn’t feature any characters or actors tied to pre-existing movies.
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Following Moon Knight’s premiere on March 30th, viewership figures for the brand new Disney+ show are in. And the numbers are an impressive showing for the Marvel Cinematic Universe newcomer. According to Samba TV, 1.8 million American households tuned in for the Oscar Isaac-led show during its first five days of availability. The site gathers data from 3 million eligible households to gauge the popularity of various titles on streaming platforms.
These figures make Moon Knight’s first episode the second most-viewed Marvel premiere on Disney+. However, the show shares this position with The Falcon and The Winter Soldier which also garnered 1.8 million during its first day on air. Interestingly, both series beat WandaVision and Hawkeye which had 1.6 and 1.5 million viewers respectively. But they still fall way behind the top of the list–Loki’s impressive 2.5 million viewership debut. Though, it’s worth noting that third-party data does not represent any official figures announced by Disney or Marvel.
The action series performed well in other territories too. Deadline reported that Moon Knight was watched by 277,000 U.K households in its first five days. It also racked up 88,000 households in Germany, and 11,000 in Australia. While viewership figures weren’t available for every Marvel Cinematic Universe series, during Hawkeye’s premiere week it only managed 199,000 U.K homes, 63,000 German homes, and 10,000 in Australia.
This is quite an impressive feat for a Marvel series that doesn’t feature any characters or actors tied to pre-existing movies. Unlike Loki, which saw Tom Hiddleston reprise his role as the God of Mischief, Moon Knight stars a character that has not been showcased in any of Marvel’s movies or television. Instead, the series premiere was bolstered by its unique tone and Oscar Isaac’s stellar performance.
Based on the character created by Doug Moench and Don Perlin, Moon Knight was adapted for Disney+ by Jeremy Slater. It is the sixth series in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and shares continuity with the films of the franchise. Slater serves as head writer for the show with Mohamed Diab leading the directing team. Starring alongside Oscar Isaac’s Moon Knight is Ethan Hawke as cult leader Arthur Harrow. May Calamawy, Karim El-Hakim, and F. Murray Abraham also appear in the series.
Moon Knight tells the story of a gift shop worker named Steven Grant who is tormented by blackouts and memories of a different life. After a few harrowing experiences, Steven realizes he shares his body with a mercenary named Marc Spector. To make matters worse, Marc’s enemies start to converge on them before Steven can wrap his head around anything. Now, both personalities are forced to navigate their lives as they stumble into a deadly mystery involving the powerful gods of Egypt.
Moon Knight made his comic book debut in 1975’s Werewolf by Night #32. Much like the series, he is the alter ego of a Jewish-American rabbi’s son named Marc Spector who grew up to become a heavyweight boxer and Marine. Spector is a mercenary with several powerful identities, including taxi driver Jake Lockley and millionaire playboy Steven Grant. These different personalities help him to take on bad guys in the criminal underworld.
