Oscar Isaac says 'Moon Knight' was able to make 'very weird decisions' without fear of box office

Moon Knight is all set to flip the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe on its head when the character makes his live-action debut on Disney+ in late March. The first teaser trailer we got a few weeks back held the promise of a mind-bending journey for Marc Spector...er, we mean Steven, the hallucinating gift shot employee of a British museum. Just shy of two minutes, the trailer was only a small taste of the weirdness that lies in store. Conversing with Jared Leto (of Sony's upcoming Morbius film) for Variety, Oscar Isaac revealed that his own grand entrance into the Marvel world was able to take greater risks since it was a "limited series" that didn't have to worry about box office returns.

"There was a lot of room to try stuff because there wasn’t the pressure that we got to make sure we make however many hundreds of millions of dollars on the opening weekend," he explained. "So we could make it very point-of-view. We could make very weird decisions. At the moment, at least — and I don’t imagine it’s going to go backwards — it feels like that’s where more of the risk is being taken because it can financially."

He also spoke on Moon Knight's obscure reputation within the realm of comics. "I’d never heard of Moon Knight before, and I collected comics when I was younger. I’d heard of Morbius, but I’d never heard of Moon Knight," Isaac admitted.

With that said, little-known properties haven't posed much of a roadblock for Kevin Feige & Co. who have been able to turn lower-tier characters into multi-billion dollar franchises. Heck,  Iron Man wasn't much of a household name when he first hit the big screen in 2008. Before Disney's partnership with Sony Pictures and acquisition of 20th Century Fox, Marvel Studios was forced to make the most of a limited sandbox. As the old saying goes, "Necessity is the mother of invention." Had Spider-Man, the X-Men, and Fantastic Four been in the MCU utility belt from the very start, we might not have seen the likes of the Guardians of the Galaxy, Eternals, or perhaps even Moon Knight.

Overseen by head writer/executive producer Jeremy Slater and co-starring Ethan Hawke as antagonist Arthur Harrow, Moon Knight officially premieres on Disney+ Wednesday, March 30.

“With the exception of WandaVision, most of Disney+’s live-action Marvel offerings haven’t strayed far from the typical Marvel norm, giving fans more of the characters they love in slightly longer story formats that they crave,” Julia Alexander, Parrot Analytics’ Senior Strategy Analyst, told SYFY WIRE. “While this strategy has produced series with exceptional audience demand, we’ve seen that sticking to the status quo comes with growth problems — Marvel fans are already on Disney+. Moon Knight, and Oscar Isaac’s role in the series, may break through to a new audience and bring in a group of subscribers that have stayed away thus far. Disney+ is still focused on growth more than anything else. Marvel fans are already all in on Moon Knight, but Disney executives are likely hopeful that Moon Knight will create new Marvel fans and Disney+ subscribers.”

Morbius, on the other hand, will sink its fangs into theaters everywhere just two days later on Friday, April 1 after being delayed a total of six times by the pandemic. "I happen to have House of Gucci and Morbius both exclusively in theaters," Leto said. "So, we’re kind of like raising the flag and marching forward even in the midst of COVID and everything."