We’re getting more and more glimpses of Marvel’s Disney+ show, Moon Knight, including a short teaser at last weekend’s big sportsball event (see above).
One of the things you’ll notice in the above trailer is Oscar Isaac’s very, very odd accent, which sounds like a poor attempt at a cockney dialect. Isaac, who plays the titular Moon Knight on the show, has recently defended his choice on the voice.
In the April edition of Empire Magazine (via Slashfilm), which hits newsstands on February 17, Isaac’s character has multiple personalities, including Marc Spector and one named Steven Grant, who speaks like he learned how to talk by watching Dick Van Dyke in Mary Poppins.
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According to writer Jeremy Slater, it was Isaac’s idea to use the accent to differentiate the two. “In the initial script, the difference between Steven [Grant] and Marc [Spector] was in attitude. It was Oscar who said ‘What about an accent?'”
Later on in the Empire article, Isaac says the accent is supposed to be bad. “I stand by the sound of Steven 100 percent,” he said. “It’s cool [the accent] got people excited, and some were like, ‘That sucks!’ and others were like, ‘That’s great!’ But there are reasons … That voice is about where Steven’s from, where he’s living now, and some of his believed heritage. It’s not an idea of what the Brits actually sound like.”
Isaac didn’t get into the details about why Steven Grant sounds that way, most likely because the Marvel machine would not be happy if he did so. Who knows? Maybe Steven actually did get his accent from Mary Poppins. Or not. We’ll likely find out some inklings of Steven’s backstory, however, when Moon Knight premieres on Disney+ on March 30, 2022.
