On Marvel’s new Disney+ series Moon Knight, the title character is a befuddled and mentally unwell man who discovers that he has been leading a double — or maybe triple — life while he sleeps. He wakes up in the morning thinking he’s Steven Grant (Oscar Isaac), a guy who works at a gift shop at a London museum. But at night he becomes Moon Knight, a superhero with the powers of Khonshu, the Egyptian god of the Moon.
As Steven gets into deeper and deeper trouble because of his superheroic sleepwalking, he begins to hear Khonshu’s voice in his head. He also has visions of this strange god, who looks like a giant wrapped in bandages with some kind of animal’s skull for a noggin. Because Khonshu doesn’t have a human face, it can be tough to identify his voice as he barks orders at Oscar Isaac — even though he does sound very familiar.
That’s because Khonshu is portrayed by Oscar-winning actor F. Murray Abraham, a mainstay in Hollywood movies for decades. Abraham won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance as Salieri in 1984’s Amadeus. He’s appeared in dozens of movies and television shows; his more famous projects include The Bonfire of the Vanities, Last Action Hero, The Grand Budapest Hotel, Mimic, and Star Trek: Insurrection.
Abraham also has a connection with Moon Knight star Oscar Isaac: They appeared together in the Coen brothers’ Inside Llewyn Davis. In that film — which was Isaac’s breakthrough role in Hollywood — he plays a folk club owner and talent manager named Bud Grossman (who was loosely based on a real-life figure in the folk scene named Albert Grossman). Isaac’s Llewyn Davis auditions for Grossman who responds to his gorgeous performance with the immortal line “I don’t see a lot of money here.”
So there you have it; start your fan theories about how Llewyn Davis is yet another alternate personality of Steven Grant right here. (Or better yet, don’t.) New episodes of Moon Knight premieres weekly on Disney+.
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