It's been crucial for Marvel Studios to bring in filmmakers who are eager to push the boundaries of storytelling and offer fresh perspectives on the world, especially when it comes to Disney Plus' upcoming Moon Knight series. The six-part show has an Egyptian-set story, and for director Mohamed Diab, it's very important to look beyond many of the past racist depictions of Egypt as presented in other films like Wonder Woman 1984.
The new Marvel Studios series follows Oscar Isaac's Marc Spector, a mercenary who suffers from a dissociative identity disorder and gains superpowers from the ancient Egyptian god of the Moon, Khonshu. As for Diab, the Egyptian screenwriter and director, who is best known for his acclaimed Cairo 678, will be directing four of the six Moon Knight episodes.
Continuing to promote Moon Knight, Diab spoke with IGN about how important it is to depict Egypt and Egyptian culture in positive ways. “It was very important for me to portray us as normal human beings. Even the location itself, showing Cairo, which always we see the pyramids in the middle of the desert, even though if you just looked a little bit to the right, the pyramids are in the middle of the city, and it’s twenty million people, and we have skyscrapers, and it’s a normal place just like this," Diab shared. Ridding of the many stereotypes was always a top priority for Diab when it came to working on Moon Knight, as the director looked back on recent comic book films like Wonder Woman 1984 and how that film continued to rely heavily on outdated tropes, particularly in one sequence involving Pedro Pascal's character traveling to Cairo to seize the oil rights.
“I remember seeing Wonder Woman 1984 and there was a big sequence in Egypt, and it was a disgrace for us,” Diab said. “You had a sheik — that doesn’t make any sense to us. Egypt looked like a country from the Middle Ages. It looked like the desert. You never see Cairo. You always see Jordan shot for Cairo, Morocco shot for Cairo, sometimes Spain shot for Cairo. This really angers us.” It is still frustrating to see countless films like Wonder Woman 1984 depicting certain locations in a generic and offensive way. Fortunately, Diab and the Moon Knight writers were able to avoid the clichés and racist tropes by presenting a setting that feels authentic. "There was definitely room to play but keep it as authentic as possible in the realm of being fantastical," Diab added. Judging by early reactions and Diab's recent comments with SFX about how he sees Isaac's Moon Knight appearing in the MCU for many years, it looks like Diab and the whole team did the comic book story justice.
Created by The Umbrella Academy's Jeremy Slater, the series will also star Ethan Hawke as Arthur Harrow, the series' main antagonist, Gaspard Ulliel as Anton Mogart/Midnight Man, May Calamawy as Layla El-Faouly, and Lucy Thackeray as Donna. Duo Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead (V/H/S: Viral, The Endless, Synchronic) have directed the other two episodes. The series will run until May 4th, with a new episode premiering every Wednesday.
Moon Knight will premiere on Disney Plus on March 30, 2022.
Source: IGN