“I think I’m losing it.”
The first trailer for Disney+ series Moon Knight dropped on Monday night and as with everything that comes from Marvel Studios, the show looks slick and spectacular. In amongst the positive reaction to the trailer, however, was social media locking on to star Oscar Isaac’s British accent.
Ostensibly portraying a haunted Steven Grant who can’t tell the difference between his “waking life and dreams,” Isaac’s sort-of-London-may-be-south-east-probably-nowhere-cor-blimey-guv accent is distracting enough that it has become a Twitter talking point, more so than Ethan Hawke’s quite excellent wig. There’s no denying, though, that both actors are embracing the chaos.
Twitter wags likened Isaac’s attempt to Don Cheadle’s iconic accent in the Ocean’s franchise and Dick Van Dyke in Mary Poppins, long-considered the gold standards in bad British accents.
Summing up some of the reaction, one user on Twitter wrote, “Oscar Isaac’s accent in the #MoonKnight trailer is literally like ‘ello guvna wot are ya dewin?!”
Isaac plays Marc Spector in the Disney+ series that takes inspiration from the modern comics, depicting the character’s struggle with dissociative identity disorder (the likely explanation for the British accent as the character switches between personalities). Moon Knight will take place amid the backdrop of modern and ancient Egypt.
The actor has previously said of the series, “we’re making something that’s quite different, and that doesn’t follow the same … logic of what a lot of superhero films do.”
Hawke is playing the villain, which he modeled after David Koresh, the leader of the Branch Davidians religious cult who died in the Waco siege of 1993.
Umbrella Academy’s Jeremy Slater is head writer, with Mohamed Diab, the filmmaker behind the Cannes drama Clash, directing the six-episode series along with Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead.
See some of the reactions to Isaac’s accent below.
What’s more off-putting from that MOON KNIGHT trailer: Oscar Isaac with that accent or Ethan Hawke with that wig?
— Chris Towers In A Taylor Swift Shirt (@CTowersCBS) January 18, 2022
Curious to see what accent they have Oscar Isaac do when they have him come in to re-dub it
— Jason Pargin, author of John Dies at the End, etc (@JohnDiesattheEn) January 18, 2022
WHY IS OSCAR ISAAC DOING A WEIRD ENGLISH ACCENT
— EW (@ErickWeber) January 18, 2022
thank god there’s a narrative explanation for Oscar Isaac’s gibberish Moon Knight accent lol
— evan romano (@EvanRomano) January 18, 2022
The Internet is going to collectively pop when Oscar Isaac uses his real voice for the first time in Moon Knight instead of his hilarious faux-British Kingsman accent.
— Christian Hoffer (@CHofferCBus) January 18, 2022
Moon Knight’s gonna be a 5’8” mummy man running around punching people and occasionally talking in a kinda British accent played by Oscar Isaac I can’t imagine a more entertaining timeline
— Red Lantern Reviews (@RedLReviews) January 15, 2022
Moon Knight looks awesome.
Giving Oscar Isaac a British accent feels like a very personal attack.
— Alexis Boucher (@alexis_b82) January 18, 2022
Oscar Isaac Moon Knight accent it’s better than the arm kiss
— Carrie Wittmer 🐊 (@carriesnotscary) January 18, 2022
Oscar Isaac’s Dick Van Dyke-esque British accent is singlehandedly going to make this immensely watchable, isn’t it? https://t.co/SQNKOdMgX3
— jacob! (@LongMacVampyr) January 18, 2022
Moon Knight is a show that dares to ask “What if there was a superhero inspired by Don Cheadle’s accent in the Ocean’s 11 movies?”
— chris (@garflyf) January 18, 2022
The Dick van Dyke accent school I hear….#MoonKnight pic.twitter.com/GcezAFrce8
— Academy Queens (@academy_queens) January 18, 2022
just watched the moonknight trailer oscar isaac using a british accent needed a jumpscare warning
— saz (@SKYBRlDGER) January 18, 2022
oscar isaac went to the lin manuel miranda in mary poppins returns school of “somewhere in the south east of england possibly east london” somewhat cockney accent
— j0shie (@joshonfiIm) January 18, 2022
Oscar Isaac is so good they said “Now play him with an accent, solving a Rubik’s Cube” just to make it interesting for him
— Anthony Carboni (@acarboni) January 18, 2022
what if oscar isaac had a british accent
— Bront (@bmrow) January 18, 2022
is that an accent or does oscar isaac just sound like that
— fezco pr manager (@cyberhellI) January 18, 2022
trying to digest oscar isaac with a british accent
— matsu (@lNCITECHAOS) January 18, 2022
