Moon Knight's executive producer reveals the important lesson he learned while working on Sam Raimi's iconic Spider-Man trilogy. Moon Knight is the much anticipated MCU show, which is now streaming on Disney+. The series, starring Oscar Isaac, tells the story of a former U.S. Marine who who struggles with dissociative identity disorder, and is granted the powers of an Egyptian moon god, becoming Moon Knight. Along with Isaac, Moon Knight also stars Ethan Hawke as Arthur Harrow.
The MCU is as omnipresent as ever with a full slate of upcoming movies and TV shows, but there was a time when comic book adaptations weren't as prevalent. In the early 2000s, Raimi's Spider-Man trilogy helped change the pop culture landscape, earning widespread critical praise for its earnest and heartfelt portrayals of Peter Parker and other characters. Two decades later, Raimi's films still resonate with audiences, as evidenced by the enthusiastic response to Tobey Maguire, Willem Dafoe, and Alfred Molina appearing in Spider-Man: No Way Home. There's no denying Raimi's trilogy left a major impact on the film industry, and it continues to influence creators to this day.
Moon Knight executive producer Grant Curtis actually produced Raimi's trilogy as well, and in a recent interview with Screen Rant, he discussed how the superhero landscape has changed, and what he learned from Raimi. According to Curtis, the most important lesson Raimi imparted to him was that "if you don't care about Peter Parker, you're not going to care about Spider-Man." For Curtis, a good superhero movie is character based, not actioned based, and he has stated that he believes that's why the MCU has been so successful. The MCU tells "character stories." See his full quote below:
"It's bananas. Obviously, Marvel is leading that charge, and Kevin and Lou and Victoria and Brad. But one thing I look back on - one thing I learned from Sam early on - is that he always told me, "If you don't care about Peter Parker, you're not going to care about Spider-Man soaring through New York City." Character, character character. I think that's what the Marvel Cinematic Universe is, and I think that's what's been driving Kevin. Character, character character. You always look at it from Peter Parker's eyes, or Tony Stark's eyes, or, in our case, Marc Spector and Steven Grant.
I think that's what makes the Marvel Cinematic Universe so rich. They're really characters stories. And sometimes that gets swept away in all the spectacle; they go into space, and we've got talking trees and stuff. But really, it's all about character first, and I think Kevin leading that charge has made an incredible universe that keeps on expanding, keeps on growing, and keeps on being new."
While the grand spectacle is perhaps what one first thinks about when considering the MCU, Curtis is, of course, right. While directors such as Martin Scorsese and Francis Ford Coppola have accused the MCU of producing theme park rides rather than films, each movie is truly rooted in a character's journey. When Spider-Man: No Way Home was released, much of the praise it received was for the relationship that grew between the three Spider-Men involved in the story. A successful MCU film layers spectacle on a character arc, not the other way around.
Curtis laying such importance on the character aspect of a superhero story certainly bodes well for Moon Knight, especially given that such a big element of the plot revolves around the main character's struggle with dissociative identity disorder. Curtis's focus on character indicates that this real disorder will be treated with respect in the series, rather than simply used as an excuse to depict some action scenes. Curtis's words certainly show that any fan of a good MCU story with real character development will want to check out Moon Knight streaming on Disney+ now.
