Oscar Isaac first travelled into a Galaxy Far, Far Away in 2012's Star Wars: The Force Awakens, and went on to play the fan-favourite Resistance pilot, Poe Dameron, in The Last Jedi (2015) and The Rise of Skywalker (2019).
Fans are eager to see more of the character, though Isaac has gone back and forth on potentially returning to the franchise since the Skywalker Saga wrapped up nearly seven years ago.
In an interview with Josh Horowitz (via ComicBookMovie.com), the actor reflected on working on Star Wars. "My favourite part was the experience of doing the first one," he revealed. "It was so wild. There was so much excitement, and everything was new."
"The singularity of that moment was amazing; getting to meet JJ, becoming close with him, John, and Daisy, and reuniting with Adam since he had done Llewyn Davis with me. It was all just such an exciting time."
Asked whether the backlash to Rian Johnson's divisive contribution to the trilogy, The Last Jedi, reached him, Isaac said, "Not really. I’ve grown up with fans and geeks. That’s basically been my family, so I know how much ownership people feel over these stories. But I also loved doing The Last Jedi with Rian."
"Getting to meet him, he’s so laid-back, sweet, and funny. He was really trying to make it his own, and I loved that. And getting to have Benicio in it, too, of course. It was an amazing experience to spend that much time in London. Yeah, it was great."
Horowitz also asked Isaac to reflect on his time in a Galaxy Far, Far Away, and more specifically, his now-infamous "Somehow, Palpatine has returned" line in 2019's Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.
"Yeah, those were reshoots. We had to do reshoots," he confirmed. "When I look at it now, I’m like, 'The wig’s pretty good.' I had already cut my hair and everything. Those are like surgical strikes where you come in and try to make sense of it all while they’re scrambling to get everything done. That line was a new addition right at the end."
"There was a lot of movement and flux throughout the whole process," he said of the troubled blockbuster that remains the franchise's worst-reviewed effort. "Had you asked me at that moment if I thought that was going to be the one that everyone would remember..."
As for a possible return as Poe Dameron, Isaac, who confirmed that he never read the script for The Hunt for Ben Solo, certainly didn't shut the door on the possibility. Still, he kept things noncommittal with a simple, "Maybe."
Beyond Star Wars, Isaac is also no stranger to the Marvel Universe. Moon Knight premiered on Disney+ in 2022, and while it was a little rough around the edges, the series got fans talking and featured a stellar performance (well, performances) from the actor.
Unfortunately, we haven't seen the character since. The show ended with Marc Spector and Steven Grant seemingly freed from Khonshu's influence, only for us to learn that a third personality, the ultra-violent Jake Lockley, was still doing the Moon God's bidding in secret.
Talking to Josh Horowitz, Isaac reflected on what drew him to Moon Knight after his disappointing X-Men: Apocalypse experience.
"There was something I really liked about Mohamed Diab," the actor started. "I loved the movie he had made before, Cairo 6,7,8. It's an incredible movie. I just thought, 'Wow, this guy's got a really interesting point of view.' I had never heard of Moon Knight before. But I loved what it was trying to do, and I saw an opportunity."
"This is something that William Dafoe said to me one time. I asked him, 'How do you pick stuff, man? Is it the director? Is it the script? What do you look for?' He just said, 'I look for space. Is there space to do something? If it's just 'deliver this thing,' no, I don't want to just deliver something. I want space to create something.'"
"In Moon Knight, I saw a lot of space to really take it seriously and look into what it's like to experience DID," Isaac continued. "There was an opportunity to do something special with it. That was the impetus for my decision to do it."
Pushed on what his MCU future could look like amid continued speculation and rumours about a Midnight Sons movie, he replied, "Yeah, there was an interesting conversation about Midnight Sons. It's tonally very important because we're playing with real stuff [DID] in that one. It's expressing something very real, challenging, and difficult, so for me, I have a lot of respect for that."
"I feel like if you're going to do it, you have to take it really seriously, even though it's a crazy comic book," Isaac mused. "That's what it's trying to do. It's doing both of those things at once."
When it was mentioned that Ryan Gosling remains a fan-favourite pick for the role of Ghost Rider (a character who would almost certainly appear in any version of Midnight Sons), Isaac replied, "Make it happen, fellas."
It seems a meaningful, continued exploration of Moon Knight's mental health issues is a deal-breaker for the actor. Now, it's down to Marvel Studios to figure out the best way to ensure that's included in Midnight Sons in a meaningful way.
You can watch the full interview with Isaac in the player below.