In Marvel Studios’ Moon Knight, editors Joan Sobel, ACE, Ahmed Hafez, and Cedric Nairn-Smith were tasked withconstructing the performance of a lead character who discovers that he has multiple identities. Oscar Isaac plays protagonist Steven Grant, a low-key museum gift-shop employee, who slowly learns that he has other lives being led simultaneously. In fact, Isaac is credited with five separate roles on the sixepisode series: Steven Grant / Mr. Knight, Marc Spector / Moon Knight and Jake Lockley.

“It was imperative that we were sensitive to rhythmically keeping these characters that Oscar created completely separate, and always perceived by the audience as distinct, playing off of each other as if seemingly played by different actors and not by one truly brilliant actor,” explains Sobel. Adds Nairn-Smith, “These characters often appeared in the same scene with one another, so to impose a distinct style upon each character would potentially create confusion, rather than meaningful storytelling. Instead, we edited each character according to the pace and tone a given scene required.”

Sobel cut Episodes 2 and 5; Nairn-Smith edited Episodes 1 and 6; and Hafez cut Episodes 3 and 4. And all involved treated each episode as if it were a short film. In fact, Sobel had never previously edited episodic television. “My whole career has been in feature films,” she admits, “and I’d never worked for Marvel.

We were walking into it, and they were the decision makers.” Considering the position that Marvel has had in entertainment over the past 15 years, Nairn-Smith notes that joining an MCU production could be initially overwhelming. “But after you spend a week or two on the project,” he says, “everything seems like you’ve been doing it your whole life. We were all exposed to new ways of doing things.

With the support staff and our own experience that we brought to the table, we were all able to fit into our roles and bring the project to its conclusion in a good way.” Marvel’s brain trust, led by Kevin Feige and including Victoria Alonso, Louis D’Esposito, and Brad Winderbaum, preside over the studio’s work. “It was in Marvel’s hands and Kevin’s hands,” says Sobel. “We would get notes from the directors, and then once that period passed, there was a back and forth that went on, and we would get notes from everybody, [including] Disney themselves.”

According to Nairn-Smith, there was a period where Disney watched the six episodes and made comments which were addressed by the editors. “And then we were in ‘Marvel’s cut,’” he says. Directors Mohamed Diab, Aaron Moorhead and Justin Benson had comments up until the end. He adds, “Most of the directors’ notes that we addressed were ‘Marvel-centric.’” Adds Sobel, “For the editors, it was amazingly creative in that there was the give-and-take with the directors, but there was also this incredible openness with Marvel, with Kevin.

He was open to ideas coming from all of us; I think the whole place is the creative forest that you’re running through, and it’s really quite exciting. I think we took those episodes and made them better and better because of it.”

Even though Moon Knight did not staff a showrunner per se, executive producer Grant Curtis served as a de facto showrunner, the editors report. “It was really him every single day, working with us,” says Sobel. “There was a back and forth of ideas; then, presenting it to Kevin and Victoria and Brad and Lou.”

As the various episodes of Moon Knight would present the multiple identities manifested in Isaac’s characterizations, the critical casting choice made the work of navigating through the different identities significantly simplified for the team.

“Oscar Isaac made it very easy for us to manage those  different characters,” explains Nairn-Smith. “Everyone was paying attention to areas where things might’ve become confusing. There were times, in earlier cuts, where it wasn’t quite clear what was going on. But I would just like to say, ‘Oscar Isaac, Oscar Isaac and Oscar Isaac!’”

Underscoring Nairn-Smith’s sentiments, Sobel reiterates that their lead actor created a clear space in which to edit the complexities of the show. “It was a joy and so wonderful and exciting to cut his performances,” Sobel says. “I can’t even say ‘performance’ because he makes you feel like there are two people, and maybe even three, on screen, all the time.”

“On the pilot, with Mohamed, we built [the cut] as it was going along,” says Nairn-Smith. “I was in razor sharp communication with Mohamed. I think this was because it was the first one – by the time the editor’s cut came around, it was ready to go after day one of production ended. I’ve never experienced that before; we were just in such lockstep.”

“Mohamed is in love with the editing,” Hafez divulges. “He loves to stay in the editing room, sometimes 17 hours. Being up-to-camera, it helps a lot to manage the editing later.” Unlike Nairn-Smith and Hafez, Sobel never went on location, nor to the Disney lot, in her work on Moon Knight. “I was pretty isolated,” she expresses. “That being said, the cuts for both [Episodes] 2 and 5 really came together pretty easily.

The communication was with notes – 99% was with Mohamed for Episode 5, and Justin and Aaron for Episode 2. That seemed to work really well.” The shoot began in late April 2021 and ended in August, and the editors delivered the bulk of their final work in early fall before final sound and visual effects shots came to postproduction. In one specific instance, a key piece of sound was critical to the editing process: the vocalization of Egyptian God Khonshu, voiced by F. Murray Abraham.

“With Oscar playing [multiple major] roles, a decision was made to have a different voice instead of Oscar’s voice (for Khonshu). F. Murray brought everything that was right to that role. As soon as I heard it, I was like, ‘Wow – that’s what we need,’” Sobel relates, adding that in getting Khonshu’s voice ideal for the series, it needed a mix of menace and humor.

“There were many different stages of it,” says Nairn-Smith. “We’ve played around with Khonshu’s voice, and we temped the voice with [dialogue from] Oscar Isaac.” The team included post-production supervisor Tristan Mathews and post-production coordinator Margaret Huntington. Assistant editors included Mark Sawa, Cory Gath, Jason Barnes, Lisa Morden, Daniel James Scott and Julia MacMullen.

The team was also assisted by Matthew Barton. For Sobel, Moon Knight is a different kind of Marvel. “It’s different than anything they’ve ever done before,” she says. “Incredibly character-driven and one of the first times you will see a superhero who is incredibly flawed and is suffering from mental illness. It really goes into what this character is going through – it’s funny at times, but it’s truly, truly emotional.