If you’ve just watched the trailer for Marvel Studios’ Moon Knight then you might be wondering who the real villain is in the upcoming Disney+ show. It doesn’t take too long to see that Ethan Hawke’s character is called Arthur Harrow, but there is no such character in the Moon Knight comic books, so either it’s a brand new villain or there’s a whole lot more to him than meets the waking eye.
In fact, we’re pretty certain that the name is either an alias or pseudonym to hide the truth behind what will become a very serious enemy for Moon Knight’s Steven Grant / Marc Spector. If you’re new to the comic book hero, you might not know that he’s actually got a fairly big rogues gallery and there are a number of contenders for who Arthur Harrow might actually be.
AdvertisementA lot of them can be discounted fairly quickly like Raoul Bushman, a mercenary who led to Marc becoming Moon Knight in the first place. The Disney+ series seems to start things off later on in Marc’s journey as the man who has been given powers by the Egyptian god Khonshu, so the origin story might be told in flashbacks or in a follow-up season if all goes well. That means that he might make an appearance at some point in the show, but probably isn’t the main villain.
Others are a bit more tenuous like The Boogie Man, which could theoretically be the force behind Arthur Harrow, but there just isn’t really enough evidence to back it up from the trailer. And it’s this point that leads to the main offender contenders, which you can read all about in the section below.
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Who is the villain behind Ethan Hawke’s Arthur Harrow
We’ve narrowed things down to just four potential characters to be the ultimate villain in Marvel Studios’ Moon Knight. These are Shadow Knight, Profile, Morning Star and Amatsu-Mikaboshi. There are hints in the trailer for the Disney+ show that could point to each of them and we’ll take you through the details below. However, it’s also possible that Ethan Hawke’s Arthur Harrow might be a combination of a few of them to deliver a really impressive bad guy for the first season of the show.
Shadow Knight – there really isn’t a conclusive amount of evidence in the trailer to point to Shadow Knight, but he’s still a real possibility as one of Moon Knight’s most meaningful enemies. His real name is Randall Spector and in the comics he’s Marc’s brother, who could also channel the power of the moon god Khonshu.
AdvertisementThis ties in with the dissociative identity disorder that Marc is dealing with, because if the power behind his abilities is split or fractured then that could explain why he’s having so much difficulty knowing who he is. It could also explain why he can’t tell the difference between dreams and reality, because it might well be shared in some way with Randall.
Finally, there’s the scene towards the end of the trailer which appears to show Moon Knight pummeling another character into the ground moments after Arthur Harrow says, “embrace the chaos”. The character on the ground looks like it could only be either Shadow Knight or Amatsu-Mikaboshi (which we’ll cover next).
Randall Spector also has comic book links to the Cult of Khonshu and Arthur Harrow is a cult leader figure in the trailer, so the dots are definitely starting to connect. Khonshu could be channeling its power through both of them with the ultimate aim to get Moon Knight to turn to the more chaotic side of his spectrum.
Amatsu-Mikaboshi – apart from the character on the floor looking a lot like it could be him, the only other reference point in the trailer is the line, “embrace the chaos”. The villain in the comics is known alternatively as the Chaos King, so with all of the talk about chaos, it seems like a pretty good tell that Ethan Hawke may well go on to channel the demonic god.
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It’s heavily linked to the Mikaboshi from Japanese mythology and while there are no reference points to this in the trailer, its definitely possible that Arthur could come into contact with other cultural relics at the museum that Steven works at as a gift shop assistant. The cult element could also tie in with the needs of a demonic god for worship, which makes the bad guy a strong contender.
Profile – the biggest link between Ethan Hawke and Profile is that the comic book character looks like he may well have been styled on the actor. The story from the comics is that he was sent to turn Moon Knight into an assassin for a group called The New Comittee and with Arthur Harrow appearing to be trying to talk Steven / Marc into embracing chaos there’s just enough in the trailer to back the theory up.
AdvertisementIt may not be as strong as the previous two baddies, but it’s an outside chance. Profile is able to understand the truth about a person just by looking at them, which could be how Harrow has amassed his cult following and could also explain his apparent power over Moon Knight.
Morning Star – our last option is probably our least compelling, but the villain was a leader of a cult, so its hard to just pass over him without mention. He was essentially a Satanist, but in the comics his target was Werewolf by Night who’s blood he wanted to use to instill power into his followers. Moon Knight only got involved to help him out, so while it’s possible Morning Star and Arthur Harrow are one and the same, it’s still a little tenuous.
And that’s it for our review of the real villain in Moon Knight. It should give you enough to see the potential of the Ethan Hawke’s Arthur Harrow character, but if you need any more questions or comments you can fire them at us over on Twitter. You can also check out our movie news section to keep tabs on the latest upcoming films, or visit the Marvel website at https://www.marvel.com to see more on the Disney+ series.
