Moon Knight Originally Left Out Key Marvel Character

The final episode of Moon Knight on Disney+ introduced a surprise to the series and to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, another superhero. In the episode, Layla becomes the Avatar of Taweret and has her own superhero costume and identity make itself known, introducing the Scarlet Scarab and giving the MCU its first wholly Egyptian superhero. The recently released Marvel Studios’ Assembled: The Making of Moon Knight offered plenty of details about how the series came together but it also confirmed that in the early stages of the show this hero was nowhere to be seen, and in fact another major piece of the episode was decided on while filming. 

“The show didn’t start with the Scarlet Scarab,” Moon Knight director Mohamed Diab said in the behind-the-scenes documentary. “But seeing May (Calamawy) and developing her as an Egyptian character, step-by-step, the idea came up, let’s make her into a superhero. Right now Marvel is the world to a lot of people, kids, teens. To be a part of that world it means you exist. Representation really, this word has ben thrown right and left, but having someone like this on screen, defending good, that’s the kind of story that brings people together.”

“We zeroed in on an Egyptian superhero in the Marvel universe named the Scarlet Scarab,” Grant Curtis, executive producer, added. “Traditionally it’s a male character who goes and re-appropriates Egyptian artiacts from people who have stolen or gotten them by ill means and returns them to their rightful owners. We thought ‘Man, the way our narrative is teeing up, that lines up exactly with what we needed for our show.”

Speaking more about this scene and the quick shift in making Layla the Avatar of Taweret, May Calamawy revealed that her character becoming possessed by the deity was something that was decided on the day they were filming the scene. She adds: “Mohamed (Diab, director) and Antonia (Salib, Taweret actress) came to the makeup trailer 30 minutes before we were going to film. And Mohamed was like, ‘Well, you see, in the Chamber of Gods, most of them, like embody the God. So can you just copy Antonia and memorize her lines and then embody Tawaret?’ And I was like ‘okay.’”

Salib added, “It was so much fun working on the physicality with May. as we were both playing the scene out and she was copying my movements that I do when I’m Tawaret and my intonations.”

All episodes of Moon Knight, plus Marvel Studios’ Assembled: The Making of Moon Knight, are now streaming on Disney+.