Yesterday's episode of Moon Knight ended with Marc Spector being gunned down by Arthur Harrow, though he'd wake up moments later in a mental hospital. Things soon took an even crazier turn there, and the stage has now been set for us to take a deep dive into the hero's psyche next Wednesday.
Talking to Entertainment Weekly, directors Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead were asked what the inspiration was behind this trippy sequence. "It came from wanting to do the least expected thing and completely disorient the audience, while also being completely true to the character that we've built over four episodes," Moorhead explained. "Also the comic book character: There's a run of Moon Knight written by Jeff Lemire, and [Greg] Smallwood did the art, and it has a lot of similar feelings and visuals to what happens at the end of episode 4. So we're really glad to be able to honor the original comics, the ones that we were the most drawn to when we were trying to crack Moon Knight. That's where the inspiration came from, especially visually and tonally."
The filmmakers declined to say too much about that hippo's appearance in the final scene, but Benson did share some insights into how they made it a reality. "It was really interesting from a technical standpoint. The way we shot that is there are three performers screaming in that scene, but there were never two people together," he recalls. "We had someone pretending to be a hippo, screaming by themselves. Then we had Oscar Isaac as Marc, screaming by himself. Then we had Oscar Isaac as Steven, screaming by himself. None of those people were together. It's like an opera of screaming."
As for what's to come in the final two episodes of Moon Knight, all Moorehead would say is, "I think if you were surprised by episode 4, get ready to be surprised again by episodes 5 and 6. I know it just sounds like a nice little tag, but I promise you that's actually the case."
We're definitely intrigued to see where things go next for Marc Spector and Steven Grant, and it would be no bad thing for Marvel Studios to shed a little more light on how he they became Moon Knight. If you're familiar with the comic books mentioned by Moorhead, you might have an idea where things are headed, though we have a feeling the MCU's spin on the story will include some surprises.
Check out some newly released stills from "The Tomb" below: