Moon Knight ramped up to its epic season finale last week with one heckuva penultimate episode in "Asylum," which revealed Marc Spector's (Oscar Isaac) tragic origin story.
The hour was arguably one of the Marvel Cinematic Universe's darkest yet as it tackled seriously adult themes like childhood trauma and abuse. It ultimately ended with the big reveal of where Marc's dissociative identity disorder began and when Steven was born.
Speaking with director Mohamed Diab post-finale, he reflected on the powerful tale and revealed that it was Marvel Studios' highest-rated episode of television ever by critics and audiences, which, while being welcome news for the production team, still caught everyone involved by surprise.
"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 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 his brother dying 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 an emotional episode. They’re going to like the 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."
Producer Grant Curtis, who has been working on comic book movies since Sam Raimi's original Spider-Man, spoke on the legacy of the original 2002 blockbuster and what keeps getting him excited about new projects, including Moon Knight.
"What continues to jazz my engines and keep me interested is the characters themselves. Peter Parker, Marc Spector, Tony Stark, just what I mean by that is Marvel movies are character studies, first and foremost. I love Spider-Man, I love Moon Knight, I love Iron Man, but what gets me turning the page in the comics and also continuing to watch the journey that Kevin and Lou and Victoria and Brad continue to take us on through the MCU is the characters. That's what I continue, that's what Sam took us on that journey with Peter Parker and Tobey, and that's what Kevin Feige continues to take the journey on and MCU is character first, and it shows.
You love these characters, you're invested in these characters. When Oscar Isaac, in episode five, is sitting there rocking his yarmulke in tears, it breaks my heart to this day, and I've seen that episode so many times that I can almost quote it. But it's what Oscar brings to the table, it's what Ethan brings the table, it’s what May brings to the table, it’s what F. Murray Abraham brings to the table that continues to keep me getting out of bed in the morning."
Moon Knight is now streaming on Disney+!
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.