When it comes to Moon Knight, Oscar Isaac’s British accent is horrendous, but there’s a good reason for it. Because of how bad Isaac’s accent sounds, fans have been unable to focus on the story of Moon Knight since Marvel debuted the first footage at Disney+ Day. …or at the very least, how peculiar he sounds. The issue was exacerbated by the fact that Marc Spector, the character he plays, is an American citizen by birth. Episode 1 of Moon Knight confirms Oscar Isaac’s strange accent, and it’s a topic of conversation, to say the least.

Prior to the film’s release, there was much discussion about Oscar Isaac’s acting talent and the discrepancy between his Marvel TV show accent and his real-life one. It is revealed in the first episode of Moon Knight that the accent is part of an especially idiosyncratic achievement, with oddities built into his personality, Steven Grant, that is intended to play into the mystery of his origin and the pay-off of Moon Knight’s reveal at the end of the show. Steven is the complete antithesis of Moon Knight’s alter-ego Marc Spector, and his awkwardness serves to emphasize that contrast.

Even with the quirks, it’s clear that Oscar Isaac is going for a Cockney accent in Moon Knight, which strongly suggests Steven is from the East End of London. The MCU’s depiction of the United Kingdom so far has not shown a working-class accent, which is a common theme in movies and TV shows. Given Moon Knight’s Marvel Comics backstory, the accent may not feature at all times throughout the show, but it’s so glaring in the first episode that it deserves to be investigated further.

Reasons to Dismiss Oscar Isaac’s Moon Knight Accent

Anyone from the UK, and especially Londoners, will think Oscar Isaac’s Steven Moon Knight accent is off, not only because his pronunciation is a little off (and at times sounds like Dick Van Dyke’s Mary Poppins accent). but also because of what he says. Steven may sound like he’s putting on an accent, but he has no idea what that means because of the mystery surrounding the origin of Moon Knight. In addition to limiting Marc’s control over their shared body, he deliberately constructs his personality to be strange and avoid contact.

Even though some have criticized Oscar Isaac’s British accent in Moon Knight as a result of his sloppy research, Isaac himself has revealed that it was inspired by several British comedians, including David Mitchell and John Bishop. During interviews prior to the release of Moon Knight, he referred to Peter Sellers, Karl Pilkington, and a few others as the inspiration for Steven’s accent:

“I thought, ‘What’s an energy that I haven’t seen in the MCU before? Like, what if someone asked Peter Sellers to be in a Marvel movie. And then I thought of Karl Pilkington. I was watching a lot of An Idiot Abroad, not so much for the accent, but for the comedy of it: like, you often don’t know if he knows he’s being funny. And there’s something a little bit naturally introverted about him, which I really liked a lot.”

The comedian Russell Kane, who hails from [Enfield], was also on Isaac’s list of people to listen to when crafting his Moon Knight accent: “So I also listened to Russell Kane, the comedian. I also threw in a little Russell Brand, despite the fact that he’s far more verbose. In the end, finding the [characteremotional ]’s centre was the most important part of the process. “I don’t know why he’s so mumbly and inward,” she says.

Oscar Isaac and his bad Moon Knight accent

There is supposed to be a red flag in the first episode of Moon Knight because of Steven’s unconvincing British accent It has already been revealed by Oscar Isaac that the British accent he has in Moon Knight is deliberate. According to him, he purposefully chose the accent to get people talking, and he’s thrilled that they are:

“I stand by the sound of Steven 100 per cent. 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 Brits actually sound like.”

That would also explain Steven’s use of terms like “later gators,” which aren’t actually British slang. Assuming that what he’s saying is an authentic London accent, he’s doing his best to fool his coworkers into thinking he’s not an imposter. The fact that no one is perplexed as to why he has such an odd accent suggests that Moon Knight may be hiding more than meets the eye.