Ethan Hawke's 'Moon Knight' Villain Is Inspired By Cult Leader David Koresh

We've known for awhile that Ethan Hawke will be playing the villain in Disney+'s Moon Knight. The show — which stars Oscar Isaac as the titular Moon Knight — is currently filming in Budapest.

Hawke, however, took the time to talk on Late Night with Seth Meyers about his new graphic novel, Meadowlark: A Coming-of-Age Crime Story. During his conversation with Meyers, the actor also shared some tidbits about his work on the Marvel show, including one inspiration for his character.

During the course of the interview, Meyers joked that Hawke — with his long, wild-looking hair and glasses — looked a lot like the cult leader, David Koresh. Hawke looked pleasantly surprised at Meyers comment and responded that he has, in fact, based his character on Koresh.

Hawke couldn't say too much of course, given the thousands of NDAs he said he had to sign before starting the MCU project. He did, however, add that Koresh "is the basis of great character inspiration."

While this gives us a tantalizing clue as to who the heck he's playing in Moon Knight, we're still in the dark as to who his character is. We do know how he ended up with the part — he and Isaac live close to each other and had a serendipitous run-in. Hawke describes the encounter below:

"I heard about [Moon Knight] from Oscar Isaac, who lives three blocks down the street from me in Brooklyn. I was in a coffee shop and he came up to me and he said, 'Hey I really like the Good Lord Bird!' and I was like 'Hey, I really like your work, you're amazing!' And he was like 'Wanna be in the Moon Knight with me?' It happened the right way."

Hawke also gave praise for Moon Knight's  level of production, speaking enthusiastically about his experience shooting the series:

"I've been acting since I was 13. I did my first movie in 1985, that's a long time ago. And these are the best sets I've ever been on in my life. The costumes, the set, the production design, the cinematography, all those elements are kind of mind boggling. So I have entered some alternate universe, and it is kind of interesting."

Given Hawke's enthusiasm for working on Moon Knight, as well as his hint that his character is based on Koresh, makes the upcoming Disney+ show seem all the more intriguing. While the show is in production now, we'll have to wait until 2022 to see Hawke's cult leader-inspired villain.