Following this past Wednesday's epic Moon Knight finale, we caught up with director Mohamed Diab and spoke to him at length about bringing the season to a close with its two strongest installments.
Check out the full interview below!
ROHAN: As much as it was a huge finale, it also felt like a new beginning for Marc and Steven. Do you feel like you were able to fully tell the story you intended to for these characters?
MOHAMED: Everything you see in the show is the result of a lot of trial and error. So, we try to make them experience lots of things, but we felt this is the best way to leave them, the characters, with something that is not definitive. You see every one of them develop - the most important thing for me was Mark and Steven through the journey, their character arc, they learned to live together, that's the most important thing.
The closure of a lot of things in the plot, they thought they're free, and we discovered that they're not. They're back of the apartment, they're going to restart their lives and we're opening doors, you never know what's going to happen. Is Layla going to be involved in that or is she not? When they're going to start living together as one body and then discovering that, oh my God, there's blackouts, and we're still under the influence of Khonshu, what's going to happen?
So, as I told you, the most important thing for me was the character arc about them living together, but everything else was left open. Layla, is she going to be a temporary avatar? Is she going to learn to be an avatar? Is she going to be the Scarlet Scarab? I love all those open questions.
ROHAN: Episode five is arguably the show's strongest and most emotional hour and it tackles some very mature themes. Can you tell me about writing that episode and your talks with Marvel... were you surprised with how dark they allowed you to go with Marc Spector's origin?
MOHAMED: As much as we can, from the pitch that we had, me and Sarah, my wife and my producer, and she's a producer on the show. We wanted to do this darker, we wanted to our backstory to be much darker. So, it was very important for us to make the backstory much darker and very emotional. So, I'm happy that we were allowed to make it darker and Marvel, definitely there was a push and pull, but everyone at the end, loved that story of the mother, which we came up with, and definitely we had the best supporters in Oscar and Ethan and May, who loved that backstory.
That backstory of the mom is something that wasn't in the initial script. That was me and Sarah coming up with the idea of the mom and killing the brother as a kid and feeling that guilt, having that burden on their shoulders. So, it's a push and pull and you learn, as a team player, what is right and what is accepted and what is not, but I'm really happy with all the collaborators that helped make the episode the way it is.
Ironically, we didn't know that people were going to like it that much. I was like, “Okay, this is going to be emotional episode. They’re going to like other episodes more,” I never, that was a shocking thing for me to hear from tons of people that this is their best MCU moment ever, especially because it doesn't have any action, it's so funny, our job, you're always fragile, you never know what's going to work and what's not going to work, so I always had doubts about this episode, what's going to happen and I always thought it's okay, even though right now when I see it without all that artist doubt, I love it, I love it so much that people love it more than - it was the best reviewed episode of all the Marvel shows ever.
ROHAN: We have to talk about the big Jake Lockley reveal in the post-credits scene... was he always intended to be introduced there? Did you ever have other plans for him?
MOHAMED: Again, lots of development, I think, Jeremy Slater, and his team thought we should focus on the two of them, because with Jake, it could be overwhelming, and you want to focus on the two characters and give them the time that they need. And actually, when we came, we tried putting Jake in, but it felt exactly like what Jeremy said, and it felt like it was too much.
But right now, I think we found the perfect balance when he’s seized control and everyone is missing them. Everyone is talking about Jake, and then, you open the door for another story to be told. I feel like one day when there's an expansion, if there is an extension for that story, it should be Jake’s story at the center.
ROHAN: We haven't heard anything about a second season just yet, but there's been a lot of fan interest in continuing this adventure. What would your ideal season two potentially look like?
MOHAMED: First of all, I'm kept in the dark, just like you, we know nothing. I feel like he's here to stay, people love Moon Knight, people love Layla, so they could stay, they could return in a season two, they could be in a film, they could be in a partnership with another superhero. I don't know anything, but I wish I can expand that world.
I myself can't wait to see the world through Jake Lockley’s eyes. What's happening in his head? I see him as a taxi driver kind of character, who's effed up and manic and a very interesting character. I want to see Marc and Steven, who are going to live in a different completely different dynamic in one body. With that struggle, and who's the villain, there's so many doors and so many things to play with. So, I can't wait to do that, if I'm allowed to come back.
ROHAN: The final battle features so many incredible visuals. Could you tell me more about how you visualized that sequence initially and how you wanted to bring this season to a close?
MOHAMED: It's more than one thing. First of all, the final scene, ironically, the whole thing at the beginning when we came along, was inside the chamber of the Gods, and I thought we saw Cairo at day and it's beautiful, but you have to see Cairo at night, people are going to love it.
So, what if we have that and we have the gods fighting apparently in the back, and you start drawing it with an artist, and then you start moving it with previous, you start directing it and redirecting it until we all feel like, “Okay, this is good right now,” and then you start shooting it and trying to finesse it. That's the process of making any any Marvel action sequence.
ROHAN: It seemed like Layla was against the idea of becoming an avatar all season, but the finale saw her reluctantly agree to become Taweret's avatar - can you tell me more about the decision to turn Layla into her own superhero?
MOHAMED: First of all, I have to give it to the writers who came up with the idea of making Layla an Egyptian character. When I came along, she was half-Egyptian. We all chipped in, me and Sarah, as Egyptians, and definitely May, we helped shape the character. I can't remember whose idea it was to make her into a superhero, but it was a fantastic idea.
We all developed it together, but I would say that May was always the lawyer of Layla, she had the best influence on her and the most important thing for us, me and Sarah, was to make Layla, the opposite of all the tropes of Arab women being the submissive type. You know, from our part of the world, people think because women are under hard conditions, they're submissive and weak, when it's actually the opposite, like my mom's super strong, my wife, my daughter, are all super strong women.
So, it was very important to do that and the moment that she turns into a superhero, we don't know how that affected the Egyptians, the Egyptians deal with this show as their Black Panther. So much pride and by the way, tons of Indians and South Asians and everyone who doesn't look white feels okay, maybe as a brown person, it's the first time, one of the first times, we see ourselves there.
Even the music by the way, a lot of Indians, you don't know like Indians especially, and South Asians are loving the show, loving the music, loving everything about it. So, I can't wait for them to see Ms. Marvel too, because it's expanding on that world, but my daughter when she was three, she wanted to straighten her curly hair, because she never saw herself in any Disney princesses, but today, having someone who looks as gorgeous as Layla being a superhero, I think it's such an important thing for a lot of girls and kids around the world.
When Steven Grant, a mild-mannered gift-shop employee, becomes plagued with blackouts and memories of another life, he discovers he has dissociative identity disorder and shares a body with mercenary Marc Spector. As Steven/Marc’s enemies converge upon them, they must navigate their complex identities while thrust into a deadly mystery among the powerful gods of Egypt.
Moon Knight is now streaming!