Moon Knight Directors Speak Out on Exploring Egypt Authentically

Disney+'s Moon Knight just released its second episode yesterday, and Marvel fans are eager to find out what's in store for Marc Spector/Steven Grant/Moon Knight/Mr. Knight and whoever else Oscar Isaac might end up playing on the show. The series features a lot of Egyptian representation, and Marvel recently released a National Geographic featurette that shows "the ways ancient Egypt inspired" the show. Recently, Moon Knight directors Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead spoke with ComicBookMovie.com and were asked about working with producer Mohamed Diab and the creative team that crafted the Egyptian experience.  

"We were very lucky to have Mohamed guiding us through the day and May Calmawy [who plays Layla El-Faouly] as well, she's also Egyptian, she was awesome," Benson shared. "Having them to guide us to the cultural aspects of it, in terms of, the humor of it specifically. Oscar is actually a really, really funny guy, so you have that treasure. Actually, his relationship, in real life, with Ethan [Hawke] was really helpful too. I don't think there are that many funny scenes between, especially Steven, but really any of Oscar's characters and Harrow, Ethan's character, but seeing them, in real life, reinforce the tonal humor. That is kind of a left-of-center version of Marvel humor, that actually I think really helped."

Benson continued, "Another thing that really helped actually with the humor of it is having Oscar's brother, Mikey, around quite a bit, having obviously him and Oscar spending a lot of time together, they just have one of those, they appear to have one of those brotherly relationships that are full of good little, like salty, sometimes childish jokes among each other. We don't know what happens in private between those two in the trailer. [Laughs] But, they were coming up with all this funny stuff, and it felt like when they got to set, those two always had some little new thing cooked up."

Moorhead added, "We very much felt like our job was to spend a whole lot of time with the actors before we got to set, to just kind of figure out what everyone's sensibilities are, and hone in on what makes it so good. Then, once we got to set, we really just wanted to chase them around with the camera and chase their best instincts and follow that lightning and that actually became our approach, strangely enough."

Moon Knight is already a big hit with audiences and critics alike. Currently, the new series is up on Rotten Tomatoes with an 86% critics score and a 94% audience score. ComicBook.com's Adam Barnhardt gave the show's premiere a 5 out of 5 and called it Marvel's "strongest." Moon Knight producer Grant Curtis recently spoke with Collider and explained that the possibilities for the character's future are essentially endless.

Moon Knight's first two episodes are now streaming on Disney+. . If you haven't signed up for Disney+ yet, you can try it out here.

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