Moon Knight’s director on the personalities mystery, Layla’s powers

[Ed. note: The following contains spoilers for Moon Knight.]

Those who think they have a handle on how last week’s Moon Knight The finale was a disappointment. You may want to reconsider. The miniseries concluded with some closure. However, the characters of Marc Spector (played by Oscar Isaac) and Steven Grant (played by Ethan Hawke), came to terms and won the battle against Arthur Harrow. There was still plenty to think about. There was also plenty of confusion throughout the series, Mohamed Diab, series director, would hope fans remember.

Following the conclusion of Marvel’s ambitious new miniseries, Diab briefly spoke to Polygon about the finale’s twists, his hopes for future Moon Knight stories, and how the show might not be as clear-cut as some may think.

This interview was edited to be more concise and clear.

Polygon: Moon Knight You leave many things unresolved. What can you do to achieve that balance? How can viewers be given a linear narrative while still leaving Marc/Steven as a mystery?

Mohamed Diab: It was very important for us to see the world through someone’s eyes that has DID [dissociative identity disorder]. That kind of disorientation — it’s not a gimmick, those blinks. It’s not a gimmick in the action as much as this is how life feels — like you can just black out and discover that something did happen that you never thought you would do, that you were responsible for something that you didn’t do. That was extremely important.

Photo: Gabor Kotschy/Marvel Studios

But, after a while I feel that people will begin to take into account. [Moon Knight]You can choose to watch a second or third-viewing series. There’s so many loops and so many layers. There’s a lot of things that you think, OK, I understand what’s real and what’s not. But when you go back and question it — It doesn’t feel like I know exactly what’s going on. And again, this is how we feel Marc and Steven’s life could be, and whatever we feel like we know about Marc and Steven, I think the journey, if we’re allowed to go back and expand it one day, could be even crazier than anything that we think it is.

Let’s talk about that big cliffhanger: The show ends with Marc and Steven accepting each other and believing they’ve come to terms with their condition, but then Jake Lockley, third personalityIntroduced is. How do you balance that journey of healing with the idea of a new persona the Marc and Steven aren’t aware of?

It is my opinion [Moon Knight]There is room for growth one day. We think so. Ok, now the character arc has ended. Marc and Steven discover to love each other. That’s what this journey is about. But maybe there’s another trauma that we don’t know about [that brings about] Jake’s blackouts. You can’t understand the full story without understanding what happens to Jake, which is something that we threw at the end, because we felt he deserved to have a full character study on his own.

Maybe there are other possibilities? Maybe? Who said that Khonshu’s not a voice in [Marc’s] head? … I’m telling you, there’s lots of things when you go back and watch it, you’re gonna think OK, there’s a lot of theories here. It’s not a gimmick — maybe this guy’s mind is so fractured that we don’t even grasp how effed up he is.

Image: Marvel Studios

I also want to ask about Layla — she gets the powers of an avatar, but unlike Marc, she rejects the servitude that Khonshu requires. How is her journey unique? What was important about making her transformation distinct from Marc’s?

First of all, she’s paired with a character that is the opposite of her, where [Taweret]It is feminine and bubbly. It’s the opposite of [what]Layla is my opposite. Just imagine Layla hearing Taweret’s voice in her head, that’s going to drive her crazy, trying to convince her to stay as an avatar and maybe learning or not learning if she needs to be an avatar or not.

However, I have something to say. You don’t know how that moment of Layla becoming a superhero is big in Egypt, the Middle East, Southeast Asia. My daughter was 5 years old when she wanted her hair to be straightened. She didn’t see herself as animated. Layla’s example is an inspiration to girls today. Egyptians are the ones behind the camera. Egyptians perform Egyptian music. The people believe they can accomplish anything. You know, as part of the world’s developing countries, sometimes they feel like the West is so superior, like our art is not important. Like we’re not enough to make a show like this. They now believe that they are capable of making a great show. Now they believe that it’s their music people are in love with in the show, the Egyptian composer Hesham Nazih. So it’s becoming a national pride there, and I’m so proud of that.