LUNAR LANDING

GET SET TO MEET MOON KNIGHT, MARVEL’S HERO WITH AN IDENTITY CRISIS

- NICK SETCHFIELD

FROM BILLIONAIRE PLAYBOYS TO bespectacled journos, high school geeks to blind lawyers, secret identities are at the heart of superhero mythology. Now imagine a hero whose true identity is truly secret – even to himself. Or should that be himselves? Summon an analyst, this might get complicated.

“It’s a fresh take on a fresh character,” says Mohamed Diab, lead director on Moon Knight, the series that brings Marvel’s psychologically-fractured avenger to the screen. “I come from a background of very intimate films. I wouldn’t connect with this character if there wasn’t anything new, and I felt the idea of a superhero who has DID – dissociative identity disorder – was super-interesting.

“Jeremy Slater, our head writer, decided to show the story through the eyes of a normal person who realises that he’s a different character, which is a superhero. Wow. Such a take. I love that take.”

Never quite ascending to the upper tier of icon hood, where your noble face is plastered on beach towels and lunch boxes, Moon Knight has remained a cult fave since his comic book debut in 1975. Such stealth status suits a hero who operates in the shadows – and, as Diab admits, eased some of the pressure of translating him to TV.

“Being someone who didn’t know anything about the character beforehand added something good. There’s no pressure as a fan to say, ‘You know what, I need to get everything that people know about the character inside [the series]’. We had to pick and choose whatever was good for the story.