Moon Knight Creator Reveals How an Egyptian Deity Poster “Changed the Entire Back Half” of the Series

Moon Knight may be focused on the struggles of a mentally-troubled hero (Marc Spector/Steven Grant/Moon Knight), but the image of a certain Egyptian deity apparently changed the entire final half of Marvel’s Disney+ event series. If you’ve seen Moon Knight Episode 4 then you can probably guess which image it is – because millions of Marvel fans currently have stuck in their heads, as well! Never did we expect the Marvel Cinematic Universe to give new life to one of the world’s most ancient spiritual icons – but here we are! 

(WARNING: Moon Knight Episode 4 SPOILERS Follow!) 

The ending of Moon Knight Episode 4 “The Tomb” delivers a game-changing twist after villain Arthur Harrow (Ethan Hawke) shoots down Marc Spector (Oscar Isaac) in order to finally free the Egyptian goddess Ammit. Instead of dying form his wounds, Marc wakes up in a different reality, in which he is a mentally-ill patient being treated in a psychiatric ward. Marc’s brave new world gets even weirder when h discovers that his “Steven Grant” persona exists in this new place as a totally separate person; both Marc and Steven get their minds blown when they find the doorway to the ward blocked by an Egyptian deity that looks like a giant hippopotamus (Taweret). 

Moon Knight writer/executive producer Jeremy Slater recently responded to a fan tweet that pointed out how a real poster chart listing the Egyptian deities made it onto Moon Knight: “That’s the one! That poster changed the entire back half of our show.”

“Right from the very first week, Marvel provided us with a ton of reference material on Egyptology, and on ancient Egyptian gods and deities,” He continues. “One of those pieces of material was a laminated poster that had like a little kid, cartoon drawings of all the different gods — one of those gods was Taweret. I spent that entire first week of our writers’ room, just staring at that. Then finally, at some point, I couldn’t take any more. I interrupted whatever we were talking about and I was like, ‘Guys, we have something much more important, which is, how do I get this hippo into the show?’”

At first the Moon Knight writers all laughed at the idea, thinking Slater was making a crazy joke. He was not: 

“I was like, no, stop laughing. I’m very serious. We’re putting her in the show [laughs]. I think that was the first moment everyone realized, oh, we have permission to get weird, here. We have permission to do some things you wouldn’t necessarily get to do if you weren’t working at a place like Marvel Studios… This gave me my weird swing. And most importantly, it got my favorite hippo into the show.”

Well, it seems that Jeremy Slater was onto something, because that WTF reveal moment has made Taweret an instant fan-favorite of the show. In fact, there’s already an entire fan discussion worrying about the hippo goddess’s fate once Gorr The God-Buthcer (Christian Bale) comes calling… 

Moon Knight streams new episodes Wednesdays on Disney+.