Moon Knight: Arthur Harrow Was Older Before Ethan Hawke’s Casting

Moon Knight’s Arthur Harrow is drastically different from the comics and even more different from how he was initially conceptualized by show writers, all thanks to actor Ethan Hawke. Hawke plays the show’s villain, a cult leader who claims to serve the Egyptian goddess Ammit. Using a tattoo of justice scales on his arm, Harrow judges whether an individual is “good” or “bad,” subsequently killing those who are deemed the latter.

The show deviates drastically from Harrow’s depiction in the comics. In Marvel’s books, rather than a religious influencer, Harrow is instead a doctor and scientist who sought to cure his own painful paralysis through questionable methods of experimentation. Moon Knight series creator and head writer Jeremy Slater was initially going to write a similar backstory for the TV version of Harrow — a dying man attempting to escape his inevitable fate.

The casting of Hawke, however, scrapped that idea completely. According to Marvel.com, Harrow was originally going to be a much older man. Then, by pure coincidence, Hawke ran into Moon Knight star Oscar Isaac during a coffee run. Isaac told him about the show and managed to bring him on board as the villain, prompting writers to come up with a new concept that better suited Hawke. Slater said:

“I pitched and wrote a draft where he was much [older]. In that version, it was very much someone looking at their own mortality, reaching the end of the road, being terrified of that, and desperate to do anything to capture it … The second Oscar came to everyone and said, ‘Look, I think I can get Ethan Hawke in this.’ We quickly abandoned the idea of an older Harrow because when you get a chance to get Ethan Hawke, you take it.”

The malleable nature of the characters and the script are yet another reminder that the MCU stands apart from the comic book universe. With Marvel essentially treating the film and TV storylines as an alternate reality, no longer can purists argue that the on-screen adaptations deviate too far from the comics — they’re two separate entities that can take any direction their writers desire. Separating the comics from the movies makes sense, as characters illustrated on paper sometimes don’t translate well in front of a camera. Adjustments are often necessary in order to be more palatable to a wider audience.

Regarding Arthur Harrow, the decision to portray the character as a David Koresh-esque cult leader is arguably far more interesting than his original concept. Too many movie villains are mad scientists, and the desire to overcome mortality is an overused trope in villainy. Marvel’s openness to bending the storyline surely helped Moon Knight become a stronger show, one that’s already been well received after just three episodes. With the series halfway through, it won’t be long before fans reach their final verdict on Moon Knight and have a better understanding of his place in the MCU.