Marvel Studios / The Walt Disney Company
Starring Oscar Isaac (Marc Spector / Moon Knight / Steven Grant / Mr. Knight / Jake Lockley), May Calamawy (Layla El-Faouly), Karim El Hakim (Khonshu) with F. Murray Abraham (Voice of Khonshu), Ethan Hawke (Arthur Harrow), Antonia Salib (Taweret), and Sofia Danu (Ammit) with Saba Mubarak (Voice of Ammit)
MOON KNIGHT
Showrunner: Jeremy Slater
A Kevin Feige Production
Produced with Louis D’Esposito, Victoria Alonso, Brad Winderbaum, Grant Curtis, Oscar Isaac, and Mohamed Diab
Music By Hesham Nazih
Distributed by Disney Platform Distribution
Number of Episodes: 6
Initial Streaming: March 30, 2022 – May 4, 2022
Rotten Tomatoes Score: 86%
Marvel Entertainment / The Walt Disney Company
In the Comics
Even for diehard Marvel fans and comic book readers such as myself, Moon Knight is a rather obscure character. A lot of people don’t know all that much about him. Those who do, however, count him amongst their most favorite Marvel characters. Moon Knight has drawn several comparisons to DC’s Batman; arguably the most popular superhero on the planet, but those who make those comparisons don’t know much at all about Moon Knight. I mean, I can see him getting compared to Batman in terms of the character’s darkness and whatnot, and Moon Knight is one of Marvel’s darkest characters, but in terms of Moon Knight’s roots and psychology? Well, this ain’t Batman!
Moon Knight was created for Marvel Comics by Doug Moench, Don Perlin, and Al Milgrom, debuting in 1975’s Werewolf By Night # 32. Moon Knight debuted as an antagonist, hired to capture Werewolf By Night. However, Moon Knight went on to side with the werewolf in Werewolf By Night #33. In ensuing Marvel Comics appearances, Moon Knight was presented as a hero, and in 1980, Moon Knight received his first ongoing series. This series expanded upon Moon Knight’s origin story, complete with the introduction of Moon Knight’s ties to the Ancient Egyptian God of the Moon: Khonshu and his acting as the Fist of Khonshu. Moon Knight’s ties to Khonshu were cleverly presented as potential hallucinations.
After a stint as a member of the West Coats Avengers, Moon Knight starred in a new ongoing series titled Marc Spector: Moon Knight, which kicked-off in 1989 and ran through the early-1990’s. That series ended with the presumed death of Moon Knight.
Moon Knight was resurrected by Khonshu in a four-part mini-series in 1998. Another mini-series was followed by a new ongoing series in 2006 that was penned by Charlie Huston with art by David Finch. This series served as a soft reboot for the Moon Knight character, as Marc Spector was re-imagined as a Gulf War veteran.
Along the way, Moon Knight was revealed to be suffering from dissociative identity disorder dating back to childhood, which explains the evolution of Marc Spector’s other incarnations: billionaire businessman Steven Grant, taxicab driver Jake Lockley, and the suited Mr. Knight. He also boasted the identity of a red-haired little girl and an astronaut. This disorder has been suggested to be a result of brain damage caused by Marc’s psychic connection to Khonshu with his main identities being the physical manifestations of the four aspects of Khonshu (the traveler, the pathfinder, the embracer, and the defender of those who travel at night). The four phases of the moon have also been tied to Spector’s other personalities and their manifestations.
Moon Knight remains to this day one of Marvel’s most complex and mysterious characters. Depending on who’s writing when, Moon Knight can be interpreted as an immortal, a hero, a villain, or a lunatic (and sometimes all four!) It is this multi-faceted nature (and his badass costume) that has made him a favorite of Marvel readers and that endeared him to Marvel Studios as a character worth investing in.
Marvel Entertainment / The Walt Disney Company
Fun Moon Knight Facts
On August 23, 2019, at the sixth-annual D-23 Expo in Anaheim, California, Marvel Studios announced their second slate of in-development streaming television shows for Disney+. Moon Knight was one of the shows that was announced along with Ms. Marvel and the series that became She-Hulk: Attorney at Law.
On November 8, 2019, Marvel Studios announced Jeremy Slater as the Head Writer for Moon Knight.
On November 12, 2019, The Walt Disney Company launched its Disney+ Streaming Service in the United States. Available for viewing upon the launch was a television special titled Marvel Studios: Expanding the Universe which featured concept art for several of the upcoming Disney+ shows from Marvel Studios, including Moon Knight.
On October 26, 2020, multiple reports surfaced suggesting that Oscar Isaac had been cast by Marvel Studios as Marc Spector / Moon Knight for the upcoming Moon Knight series on Disney+. Kevin Feige confirmed the casting in May of 2021.
On Thursday, December 10, 2020, The Walt Disney Company hosted an “Investor’s Day” conference call in an effort to generate revenue in what had been the most challenging year in company history with the COVID-19 Coronavirus Pandemic shutting down film and television productions, closing theaters, canceling cons and conventions, and closing theme parks, while infecting 69-million people worldwide and killing 1.5 million. With no San Diego Comic Con and no D23, there had been no formal announcements from Marvel Studios over the course of 2020, making Kevin Feige’s 23-minute Investors Day promotional video clip for Marvel Studios quite the anticipated ordeal! During the presentation, Feige labeled Moon Knight as a “whole new different vibe to the MCU” and furthermore labeled it an action-adventure series, going so far as to name-drop Indiana Jones and revealing that the show would take place primarily in Egypt.
In January of 2021, Ethan Hawke was cast to portray the primary antagonist in Moon Knight.
In developing Moon Knight, Mohamed Diab and his wife Sarah worked together, devising a 200-page document to present to the Marvel Studios team that outlined their vision for the series. The couple intended to depict Egypt and Egyptian people in a more positive way than previous Hollywood productions had done. The pair sought to work against the stereotypical tropes of Egyptians being depicted as “guides and desert wanderers”, and they sought to present Egyptian culture in a far more progressive way. Mohamed Diab specifically vowed to hire a crew comprised of predominantly Egyptians to create the series, feeling this would further authenticate Moon Knight.
Production designer Stefania Cella worked with Egyptologists and a supervising Egyptian art director to ensure historical accuracy in her sets.
Moon Knight was originally scheduled to begin shooting in the Fall of 2020, but complications pertaining to the COVID-19 Coronavirus Pandemic caused delays. Filming finally commenced in the Spring of 2021 in Hungary. Production wrapped on October 14, 2021, in Atlanta, Georgia.
In Moon Knight, Oscar Isaac’s brother Michael Benjamin Hernadez served as Isaac’s double throughout production.
Moon Knight Director Mohamed Diab was the first Arab to ever direct a Marvel Studios production.
Actor Ethan Hawke based his portrayal of Arthur Harrow off of notorious cult leader David Koresh.
Marvel Studios inserted multiple QR codes into the production of Moon Knight. These codes actually work, providing viewers with the opportunity to read select Moon Knight comics for free, digitally.
Actor Gaspard Ulliel portrays Anton Mogart in Moon Knight. Marvel comic book readers know Mogart as Midnight Man. Ulliel passed away at the age of 37 two-months before the Moon Knight premier from complications stemming from a skiing accident on January 19, 2022.
May Calamawy portrays Layla El-Faouly in Moon Knight. Layla is the first Arab / Middle Eastern hero in a Marvel Studios production. The character is based on both Marvel Comics characters Marlene Alraune (Marc Spector’s wife) and Mehemet El-Faouly (the Scarlet Scarab).
The first trailer for Moon Knight debuted on January 17, 2022, during the NFL Playoffs. The trailer was viewed a reported 75-million times during its first 24-hours of release. A second trailer for Moon Knight aired during the NFL’s Super Bowl LVI, which saw Matthew Stafford and the Los Angeles Rams defeat Joe Burrow and the Cincinnati Bengals by a final score of 23-20.
Mohamed Diab has expressed high hopes for the Moon Knight character, suggesting during a March-2022 interview that he could see the character lasting for up to 10-years and eventually receiving his own feature film. Kevin Feige meanwhile confirmed that like most other MCU characters, Moon Knight would indeed crossover from Disney+ into Marvel Studios feature films. However, as of the time that the production wrapped, Oscar Isaac had yet to sign a new contract with Marvel Studios, putting the future of the character in some doubt.
Moon Knight was Marvel Studios’ fifth live action Disney+ series following WandaVision, The Falcon and The Winter Soldier, Loki: Season One, and Hawkeye.
The opening song heard in the first episode of Moon Knight is Every Grain of Sand by Bob Dylan.
At the 2022 San Diego Comic Con, Kevin Feige dubbed MCU Phases 4-6 “The Multiverse Saga.” It was understood in the Summer of 2022 that notorious time-traveling villain Kang the Conqueror would be the primary antagonist of The Multiverse Saga, and though Moon Knight presents a largely standalone MCU story, Kang (or a Variant of him anyway) is subtly referenced through the symbol on the back of a jacket worn by a follower of Arthur Harrow – the symbol is that of Pharaoh Rama-Tut, who was formally introduced as a Kang Variant in 2023’s Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania, portrayed by Jonathan Majors.
On May 25, 2022, Marvel Studios Assembled – The Making of Moon Knight was released on Disney+, featuring interviews with Mohamed Diab, Aaron Moorhead, and Justin Benson as well as stars Oscar Isaac, Ethan Hawke, and May Calamawy, and including a deep dive into dissociative identity disorder. On April 30, 2024, Moon Knight was released on Ultra HD Blu-ray and Blu-ray, along with The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. These releases marked the third and fourth Disney+ productions from Marvel Studios to be released on Physical Media following Loki: Season One and WandaVision.
In the 2023 book Marvel Studios – The Marvel Cinematic Universe: An Official Timeline, exactly when Moon Knight takes place on the MCU Timeline was revealed. Moon Knight occurs in the Spring of 2025 and should be chronologically viewed after Hawkeye and before Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.
Marvel Entertainment / The Walt Disney Company
My Moon Knight Review
The Goldfish Problem – Directed by Mohamed Diab. Written by Jeremy Slater
First aired on Wednesday, March 30, 2022, on Disney+.
The first episode of Moon Knight introduces viewers to museum worker Steven Grant, a jittery, cautious, and unassuming man that suffers from blackouts and occasional confusing memories of another life. After going to sleep on an otherwise random night, Grant awakens in another Country and witnesses a cult gathering led by Arthur Harrow. The cult leader demands Grant return to him a scarab that Grant unknowingly has in his possession. This leads to an altercation and a car chase that Grant gets the better of through instructions offered from an ominous voice within his own head. Grant reawakens to discover two days’ worth of missing time and later receives a call from a mysterious woman that calls him “Marc.”
The following day at work, Grant is visited by Harrow, who is still seeking the scarab. Harrow professes to be a devout servant of the goddess Ammit and warns Grant of the consequences that will befall him for daring to cross Harrow and his goddess. Harrow wields a mystical power to weigh the worth of one’s soul, and when he uses this on Grant, he merely discovers a great deal of chaos within Grant’s psyche, much to his bewilderment.
Later that evening, Grant finds himself stalked by an Anubis jackal creature that has been summoned by Harrow. With the creature closing in, Grant’s mirrored reflection orders Grant to allow him to take control. Grant begrudgingly concedes, and transforms into Moon Knight, who proceeds to beat the Anubis jackal to death!
My first impression of this series was that it is going to live-up to the hype that had preceded it, at least in terms of being unlike anything we’d ever seen from Marvel Studios. I loved that Kevin Feige, and his immensely talented team refused to be complacent and continued to insist on pushing the boundaries of superhero storytelling.
After viewing this first episode, the first thing that stood out to me was the imagery. There was so much to appreciate here from artifacts to hieroglyphs, and on to the Egyptian gods themselves. Khonshu looked wickedly cool, the Anubis jackal creature looked terrifying, and Moon Knight himself … well, we only got what amounted to a glimpse in this episode, but that costume was amazing! From the glowing white eyes to the mummy-like fabric that the suit was comprised of, it was perfectly executed! This suit had a type of presence that was really unprecedented in a Marvel Studios production. It may well be the best adaptation of a Marvel character from page to screen ever!
The other thing that stood out to me about Moon Knight was mystery! There is a lot going on here, not just pertaining to the many personalities of Oscar Isaac’s character, but there is also Ethan Hawke’s Arthur Harrow and his connection and devotion to his Egyptian goddess, and then there are the gods themselves!
The Marvel Studios team hadn’t really gone all-in on the concept of gods before Moon Knight. The Asgardian gods were basically explained away as aliens that wield advanced technology, and that same sort of concept more or less applied to The Celestials and The Eternals. We knew that a spiritual Realm existed within the MCU though, as seen in Black Panther via the Ancestral Plane; a movie which also just so happened to feature the most major actual god or goddess in the MCU: Bast, who also just so happened to be an Egyptian goddess.
Marvel Studios / The Walt Disney Company
Summon the Suit – Directed by Aaron Moorhead and Justin Benson. Written by Michael Kastelein
First aired on Wednesday, April 6, 2022, on Disney+.
This episode of Moon Knight picks up with Steven Grant returning to work following his fight against the Anubis Jackal creature where he attempts to view the security footage from the fight, only to realize that the creature itself could not be physically seen on film, confirming its spiritual nature. What can be seen, is Grant scurrying about and making a mess of the place while looking completely crazy! The museum decides against pressing charges against Grant, but they do fire him and encourage him to seek out professional help for his apparent mental instability.
From there, Grant ventures to a storage facility that he strangely holds a keycard for where he discovers the scarab to still be in his custody. Grant is taken aback by the things he finds in the room; everything from a makeshift bed to a gun, to a bag of money. While in the room, Marc Spector makes contact with Grant through his reflection. Spector declares that he is an American mercenary that serves as the current avatar for the Egyptian god Khonshu and encourages Grant to once again give him control of the body that they share, but Grant adamantly refuses and scurries outside where he is confronted by Khonshu himself before bumping into Layla, who he discovers to be Spector’s wife.
Layla has no idea what to make of Steven Grant, as she finds him annoyingly oblivious and to have very little in common with the man that she married. Unsure if her husband is playing her for a fool or if he has suffered a complete mental break, Layla takes her husband back to Grant’s apartment where she is baffled by just about everything that she sees and hears.
Most important to Layla is the discovery that Grant is in possession of the scarab, and a concerned Spector warns Steven against giving the object to Layla for her own safety, but whatever moral debate Steven could have had is interrupted by the arrival of two supposed police officers who take Grant into custody while Layla escapes out a nearby window with the scarab.
The officers turn out to be associates of Arthur Harrow, and they take Grant to meet with Harrow, who is surprisingly calm, welcoming, and polite, vowing to understand Grant’s confusing condition, and explaining himself to be a former avatar of Khonshu.
Harrow warns Grant against doing anything that Khonshu requests and writes Khonshu off as being an outcast of the gods as well as inferior to the god he now serves: Ammit. Harrow explains that the vengeance Khonshu thrives upon is pointless, because it always comes after the crime, while Ammit dishes out punishment before the crime is committed, which prevents the crime from taking place, which better serves the innocent. Harrow also notes that he needs the scarab because it serves as a map to the tomb of Ammit, which he needs to locate so that he can resurrect her.
Steven doesn’t buy-in to the form of justice Harrow is championing however, and while insisting he doesn’t have the scarab, Layla (who does) arrives to rescue him and a chase ensues when Harrow summons another Anubis jackal creature. Layla desperately encourages Steven to “summon the suit”, and he inevitably does, but he does not transform into Moon Knight – he instead transforms into Mr. Knight.
Nonetheless, Steven boasts tremendous strength and durability in this form, and he takes the fight to the Anubis Jackal, but is unable to overcome it. With the lives of several innocents in imminent danger, a panicked Steven surrenders to Spector, and Marc emerges as Moon Knight.
Moon Knight dispatches of the Jackal in extremely violent fashion but loses the scarab in the process. Harrow obtains the scarab, and Spector is left debating an understandably whiny Grant while being threatened by Khonshu against abandoning his mission, as Khonshu ensures Spector that his next avatar in such an event will be Layla.
I thoroughly enjoyed this episode of Moon Knight!
I really liked the moral conundrums that were being presented in this show, which were’t entirely new to the MCU.
In Captain America: The Winter Soldier, we heard Nick Fury sort of championing the notion of preventing a crime before it is committed (though I believe he was testing Steve Rogers when he said those things), and this show returns viewers to that ideology. How you feel about such a concept is up to you, but it does make for an interesting debate.
Also, the god Khonshu is presented here as pretty much an asshole. This is true to the comics, and it is in many ways true to the MCU as Odin was presented in this same sort of light at times in the Thor films as was Arishem in Eternals. This goes all the way back to a timeless debate: if gods have all this power and can prevent pain and suffering, then why don’t they? An all-powerful god who can prevent pain and suffering but chooses not to doesn’t seem very “good”, while a good god that can’t prevent pain and suffering doesn’t seem like much of a god. I think these sorts of questions make for very interesting theological debates and I thought it was a brazen move by Marvel Studios to continue to tackle this sort of thing.
I have to commend Oscar Isaac for his performance during this episode. He really did seem like two different people! It reminded me a lot of the late Christopher Reeves and how brilliantly and differently he portrayed Clark Kent and Superman from posture to speech to attitude. Isaac was tapping into that here!
This episode also had some really great jump scares, more hauntingly beautiful imagery, and another solid performance from Ethan Hawke as Arthur Harrow. The reveal of the pyramids at the end of the episode combined with Marc Spector now having control had me really pumped for the following episode!
Marvel Studios / The Walt Disney Company
The Friendly Type – Directed by Mohamed Diab. Written by Beau DeMayo, Peter Cameron and Sabir Pirzada
First aired on Wednesday, April 13, 2022, on Disney+.
While Arthur Harrow and his followers discover the location of the Tomb of Ammit in the desert, Marc Spector and Steven Grant both suffer blackouts in Egypt while trying to track Harrow down in what is the apparent and notable emergence of an unnamed third personality / identity within them; one that is even more ruthless and more violent than Spector. With Harrow remaining elusive, Khonshu causes a solar eclipse in an attempt to call for a Council of the gods. This works, as Marc Spector is summoned to stand amongst other Egyptian gods and their avatars inside the Great Pyramid of Giza.
There, Khonshu possesses Marc’s body to present a case against Arthur Harrow, deeming his attempts to find and resurrect Ammit as criminal sins, charges that if proven, the other gods would actually agree should be punished, but Khonshu is unable to bring the gods to look beyond Harrow’s calm and polite demeanor to see the dark motives that drive him, and Harrow, while himself standing before the gods, actually turns the gods’ concerns on Khonshu, informing the Council of the poor mental state of Khonshu’s avatar.
The gods side with Harrow and warn Khonshu against performing any more celestial manipulations. The avatar for Hathor covertly confronts Spector however and points him in the direction of a sarcophagus that if found, can point the way to the Tomb of Ammit. It turns out that Layla knows the whereabouts of the sarcophagus and she and Marc unite for a journey to the residence of Anton Mogart. Marc conspires with Steven to begin deciphering a map within the sarcophagus, but Arthur Harrow arrives and performs a miraculous display with his staff that results in the destruction of the sarcophagus. This leads to Anton and his many men turning against Spector and Layla, prompting Marc to summon the suit. Moon Knight and Mr. Knight both brawl with Anton’s men, violently taking out the lot of them.
Layla and Marc / Steven flee with remnants of the map, but the map is based on Celestial alignment and is outdated by some 2,000 years. This prompts Khonshu to turn back the night sky to the proper alignment; a true Celestial miracle that immediately results in his imprisonment inside a small stone statue by the other gods. Though Marc / Steven now knows the path to the Tomb of Ammit, the power of Khonshu has been lost to them, which renders them unable to summon their suits.
This thrilling episode of Moon Knight introduced us to the The Ennead. This was the Council of the Egyptian gods, which traditionally has nine members in the Marvel comics. We saw only five here, but I’m betting that Khonshu and Ammit each served on this Council once upon a time, and I wouldn’t be surprised of Bast was a member as well!
The Ennead explain themselves as being mere “observers” of humanity, insisting that they stopped interfering in human affairs long ago. I’m guessing that this is the nature of the Egyptian gods in the MCU. They are real, actual miracle-performing deities that no longer answer prayers because they no longer act as active gods to their worshipers. What happened to cause this rift between the gods and humanity has yet to be explained, but obviously, Khonshu does not adhere to this spiritual exodus, and this is probably why he is such an outcast.
I have to admit to being disappointed that the gods used avatars for this important scene in Moon Knight, as it robbed viewers the chance of seeing the Egyptian gods in all their glory. Also, I wasn’t thrilled with how easily Arthur Harrow manipulated the other gods. They said they existed to “observe.” Can they not observe Harrow doing the things that he has been doing throughout this series, and if they can’t, why not? It not only seemed like a convenient plot device, but also like the kind of confusing dogma that many religious people throw out to answer the hard questions.
That being said, the third identity thing with Marc / Steven wasn’t exactly shocking by any means, but it was an exciting development that added to the mystery of the character and its capabilities.
Marvel Studios / The Walt Disney Company
The Tomb – Directed by Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead. Written by Alex Meenehan, Peter Cameron, and Sabir Pirzada
First aired on Wednesday, April 20, 2022, on Disney+.
This episode see Layla and Steven Grant finally venture to the Tomb of Ammit where they discover an abandoned camp site that served as a maze in the shape of the Eye of Horus. Layla is not only bonding with Steven, but actually falling for him, and this serves as quite the adventure for the two of them as they encounter some terrifying undead Egyptian priests!
Arthur Harrow soon emerges and tells Layla that Marc Spector played a part in her father’s murder, something that Marc later owns up to while trying to explain that he tried to prevent the murder and was actually left for dead himself by the actual killer. Marc goes on to discover that the legendary Alexander the Great was the last avatar of Ammit, and Marc has to resort to desecrating Alexander’s corpse, sticking his arm down the throat of what remains of the former King in an effort to recover Ammit’s ushabti.
From there, Layla angrily confronts Marc, who confesses to having been resurrected by Khonshu. Marc is then shot twice by Harrow and awakens inside some kind of mental asylum where he is surrounded by various people we have seen throughout the show, who are either orderlies or fellow patients … even Harrow is here as Marc’s therapist!
A wheelchair-bound Marc (complete with an action figure of Moon Knight in his hand) goes into a panic and attempts to flee. As he dashes through the hospital, he stumbles upon a sarcophagus that contains none other than Steven Grant! Yes, Marc and Steven are in two separate bodies. The pair happen upon another sarcophagus but decide against opening it before running into the Egyptian Goddess Taweret; the goddess of fertility and childbirth, who boasts the head of a hippopotamus! This was no avatar, this was Taweret in all her glory, and this marked the end of the episode.
So yeah, things got really crazy this week with the idea that this entire show has all been happening in Marc’s head at least teased, if not outright established. This left me wondering if all of these adventures we’d been seeing Marc embark upon were merely mental fantasies that he allowed himself to believe were real and that were based on his actual physical surroundings? Or was the mental asylum a trick of the mind and it was that that wasn’t really real? With this sequence, Marvel Studios dove right into the things that have made Moon Knight so intriguing over the years in the comics. Is Marc Spector crazy? Of course, he is! He himself has admitted that he’s not well, but how crazy is he, really?
Marvel Studios / The Walt Disney Company
Asylum – Directed by Mohamed Diab. Written by Rebecca Hirsch and Matthew Orton.
First aired on Wednesday, April 27, 2022, on Disney+.
This was my favorite episode of Moon Knight yet, and is in my opinion, amongst the greatest single television episodes that the Marvel Studios team have produced! This reminded me a lot of Previously On, the eighth episode of WandaVision, in terms of its tone and its reveals. I thought this was an absolutely beautiful episode of Moon Knight that was fully loaded with both confirmations and unforeseen reveals for me!
Asylum picked up right where The Tomb left off, with Marc and Steven separated in two physical bodies and standing before the Egyptian goddess Taweret. Adapting to Taweret was for me, similar to adapting to Alligator Loki in Loki: Season One. At first sight, it felt like it was a bit too much in an over-the-top sort of way, but once I was able to spend some time with Alligator Loki as a viewer, I warmed up to him in a big way, and the same holds true for Taweret! First off, I loved her voice and demeanor. Taweret was voiced by Antonia Salib, who was just perfect with this polite and sweet female performance that brought the goddess that looks like a hippopotamus to life in a really satisfying way.
Taweret goes on to explain to Marc / Steven that they have in fact died, and that they are in the afterlife; a portion of it anyway, as this is specifically the Egyptian afterlife. The mental ward is a manifestation of Marc’s soul along with everyone and everything in it, so it isn’t really real in a literal physical sense, but it is very real to Marc and Steven! Taweret even name-drops the Ancestral Plane (as seen in Black Panther) while describing the beauty that the afterlife has to offer to those who are worthy of it, which while officially unnamed seems to be in the MCU, divided into subsections based on one’s faith or beliefs, which certainly left the door open for us to eventually visit Valhalla; as we eventually (briefly) did in Thor: Love and Thunder.
We get some really fantastic imagery throughout this afterlife sequence, complete with a boat sailing through sand! Those sands comprise the Duat; the Realm of the Dead. Think Hell or Hel as it were. Taweret goes on to explain that Marc and Steven’s hearts must be weighed on the Scales of Justice to determine whether or not they can enter the Field of Reeds; the Egyptian Heaven ruled over by Osiris. Taweret soon discovers Marc and Steven’s scales to be out of balance however and encourages them to reenter the purgatory that is their psych ward where they can view past memories and come to terms with them.
This is a complicated experience for Marc and Steven however, as Marc remembers a lot of things that Steven doesn’t and vice versa. For viewers of the show, this opens the door to learning more about why Marc and Steven have evolved to the point they have, complete with Steven’s origin as a personality and Marc’s origin as Moon Knight, and this was really great stuff!
It turns out that Marc had a younger brother named Randall that drowned to death while the two were off on a childhood adventure together. Marc’s mom blamed him for Randall’s death to the point where she wholly resented him and delighted in verbally and physically abusing him. These were some really heavy and really emotional scenes that were beautifully acted and we as viewers were treated to the exact moment when Steven first manifested himself as an alternate personality, learning that Marc’s mind broke due to the extreme stress brought on by his mother’s abuse and his own guilt over Randall’s death. It was one of the most raw and sad scenes in MCU history, and it was strengthened all the more by Oscar Isaac’s performance as a grown-up Steven Grant discovering that he was not the original personality after all. Meanwhile, Marc tries desperately to comfort Steven, explaining that Marc never wanted Steven to suffer the traumatizing horror that was his life!
On top of that, we also got the origin of Moon Knight in a flashback to the night that Layla’s father was murdered, and we learn that Marc was being truthful in his account of this event. He did not kill Layla’s father, and he really was himself left for dead, but as fate would have it, Marc stumbled into the Tomb of Khonshu where after contemplating suicide, he made a pact with the god, vowing to serve as Khonshu’s Fist of Justice in exchange for Khonshu saving his life. So, Marc was healed, and Marc became Moon Knight.
From there, it is also revealed that it was not until very recently that Marc started having issues with blackouts and the reemergence of Steven, again, true to Marc’s prior word. What brought all of this on as it turns out was the mental and emotional stress pertaining to the death of Marc’s bitch of a mother. Just wow!
All of this leads to some really touching stuff with Marc and Steven coming to terms with one another, but despite this progress, their scales remain out of balance, prompting the arrival of hostile sand spirits who attack the boat in an attempt to draw Marc and Steven into the sands where they are to spend Eternity. Marc and Steven beg Taweret to assist them, and she does what she can, but Steven is nonetheless dragged into the sands, his soul bound to them after making a daring move to save Marc from suffering that fate.
With Steven’s sacrifice, the scales balance and Marc suddenly finds himself in the Field of Reeds.
The apparent demise of Steven was a really moving scene and was one that made me quite emotional. This was just the icing on the cake to this whole episode though, which was so full of emotion and complexity. By the end of this episode, I was finding it difficult not to use words like masterpiece to describe this series as it had been so different and so very good!
Marvel Studios / The Walt Disney Company
Gods and Monsters – Directed by Mohamed Diab. Written by Danielle Iman and Jeremy Slater with Peter Cameron and Sabir Pirzada
First aired on Wednesday, May 4, 2022, on Disney+.
I have to start by just saying wow! I think I said that word out loud a dozen times over the course of this 45-minute finale, much to the chagrin of my son, who was trying to soak in every single detail. It was all I could do to keep my thoughts to myself as I sat next to him on the couch and watched this episode, but I kept it together as best I could, and did pretty well I think, considering how much this blew me away.
Going into this episode, my hopes weren’t all that high. After all of the drama and emotion and psychology that the preceding episode boasted, I simply wanted spectacle in this finale. I wanted to see Moon Knight fight Arthur Harrow and I wanted to see Khonshu get freed, and I was really hoping to see Ammit after all of the build. I got all of that and more, so yeah, I was pretty happy coming out of the finale!
The way I understand it, the early parts of this episode coincided with what Marc / Steven were going through in the afterlife last week. As they traversed the Duat last week, they mentioned that they were seeing the effects of Harrow’s power manifest in front of them, and I’m guessing that was the result of Harrow’s mass judging that was going on here. They also asked Taweret for help last week and we see her early in this episode try and woo Layla through the mouths of some of Harrow’s victims, urging Layla to free Khonshu so that Marc / Steven can be saved. This provokes Layla to go under cover as a member of Harrow’s Cult of Ammit and Harrow eventually leads an invasion of the Great Pyramid of Giza, declaring war upon the gods in the name of Ammit.
Meanwhile, Marc decides against staying in the Field of Reeds, neglecting Heaven in order to save Steven, and they share a really sweet moment in the sands that sees Marc place his whole heart in Steven’s hand, which miraculously saves Steven. Marc and Steven then stepped through a glowing door and back into the land of the living as it were, reentering their shared corpse. More on that in a minute!
Let’s talk about Ammit. Yes, we got to see Ammit in all of her Crocodile headed glory, and I thought she looked spectacular! Saba Mubarak provided the voice, and I really liked the way she sounded and the way that she moved (thank you Sofia Danu)! Kudos to Ethan Hawke for his performance during her emergence! As it turned out, Harrow’s heart and soul were not balanced and you could see the fear, sadness, and regret in his eyes as he realized what that meant, but Ammit showed mercy on Harrow for his perseverance in freeing her, and I actually thought that was a nice little moment between those two characters.
As Ammit emerges and rather easily decimates the avatars of the other Egyptian gods, Layla, having seen enough, slips away into the darkness and finds Khonshu’s statue in which he was imprisoned. She then breaks the statue open and frees Khonshu. Layla would from there, adamantly refuse to become the avatar for Khonshu, but Khonshu would soon realize that she was not needed, as Marc Spector had returned from the afterlife. Khonshu and Layla rush to Marc’s side and find him communicating directly with both Marc and Steven in a fluid sort of way, and Marc and Steven both vow to stop Ammit, but negotiate with Khonshu to be freed from his grip once that is done. Khonshu begrudgingly agrees, and Moon Knight and Mr. Knight fly into battle against Harrow and Ammit.
Along the way, Layla takes Taweret up on her offer to serve as her avatar, and this was phenomenal! Layla receives a powerful suit of her own, complete with armor and golden wings. The design of this suit bordered on perfection in both its look and its practicality. May Calamawy absolutely owned this transformation into The Scarlet Scarab, bringing a new attitude and a new level of physicality to her performance that we had not yet seen from her during this series. Also, it was wonderful seeing her go back-and-forth from Layla to Taweret!
From there, it’s the final battle and it’s freaking amazing! Moon Knight and Mr. Knight are interchanging throughout the fight, taking it to Harrow and his followers with Layla helping out while in the background, there are several incredible images of Ammit fighting Khonshu! There are SO many badass moments and images throughout this sequence as comic panels come to life and the boundaries of MCU spirituality are pushed! This was haunting and beautiful stuff, and I loved each and every second of it!
Things eventually come to a head with Ammit threatening Khonshu and Harrow having Marc dead to rights while Layla is being seriously threatened and then … we instantaneously fast forward to Harrow having been beaten to a bloody pulp and several of his followers lying dead in the street! We don’t see how it happened though, and Marc, Steven, and Layla are all just as confused as viewers are supposed to be. Of course, this was an instance of the third personality within Marc and Steven that has been teased throughout this series manifesting itself, and that would lead to big payoff later in this finale.
Ammit is ultimately conquered by being imprisoned within Harrow, Khonshu then instructs his Moon Knight to kill Harrow, but Marc and Steven refuse and emphatically declare that their time as the Fist of Khonshu is over. Khonshu releases Marc and Steven true to his word.
From there, Marc and Steven are back in the asylum! What!?!
Yeah!
There they are talking with Doctor Harrow again. This was a truly shocking moment for me as I’m thinking, so, it was all in his head after all??? As I’m trying to make sense of the situation, Doctor Harrow states that he does not believe in the existence of the Egyptian gods, but Marc soon notices blood coming from Harrow’s shoes and as Harrow gets up, he begins leaving bloody footprints where he walks and Marc and Steven declare that they are done with the asylum and with Harrow, and that they are going to move forward with a new life together, vowing to be heroes.
Marc / Steven then wake up in their bed, in Steven’s place of residence with sand surrounding the bed and with themselves chained to the bed as the same song from Episode One plays (A Man Without Love by Engelbert Humperdinck).
So, I don’t know how to take this! I expected that this show would end ambiguously, and I don’t know if Khonshu freeing Marc / Steven sent him back to purgatory or if purgatory was all in Marc’s mind, or even if this whole series was all in Marc’s mind. Did he imagine all of it? Was it all a dream?
I think that is something for each viewer to decide on their own.
Due to the nature of the mid-credits scene however, I believe that everything was real.
Said scene sees Arthur Harrow in the really real world having been institutionalized in an asylum. Harrow’s day is suddenly interrupted when he is whisked outside by a stranger and escorted into a white limo. The stranger kicks Harrow’s wheelchair away and in the back seat, Harrow encounters Khonshu, who states that he came out on top of his arrangement with Marc Spector after all because Marc Spector is far more disturbed than he realizes. Khonshu then introduces Harrow to Jake Lockley; the much teased and quite violent third personality of Marc and Steven, and Jake shoots Harrow at point blank range, killing him!
So, the way that I take it, is that Jake Lockley is just fine with serving as the Fist of Khonshu and that means Marc and Steven are still bound to Khonshu through Jake Lockley.
Marvel Studios / The Walt Disney Company
Final Thoughts
The end of Moon Knight was just as surreal as the entire series had been. From start-to-finish, it was bonkers! But it was bonkers in all the best ways! I must admit that even though I expected it, there was a part of me that didn’t love the ambiguity that the show ended with. This in many ways reminds me of Avengers: Endgame and how I felt about the end of that film as it pertained specifically to Steve Rogers’ fate. Six years after Endgame, we still don’t have an answer about Steve and Peggy and we may never get that answer, and that’s probably going to hold true for Moon Knight as well. I don’t know if Kevin Feige or anyone else from Marvel Studios is ever going to come out and say whether all of this actually happened or if it was all in Marc’s head. They may never tell us what was real and what wasn’t, because they may want everyone to work it out for themselves and then apply it to their own head canon as they will. I know how I feel, but I don’t know if it’s the truth. And believe me, the complexity of that analogy as it pertains to a show and character like Moon Knight is not lost on me!
All of that being said, this show was for me, a Marvel Studios masterpiece. It’s right up there with the best projects that Kevin Feige and his team have ever done. As a viewer, I truly felt like I was taken into another world. The cinematography and the sets were top-notch. The tone was perfect. The music was amazing. The special effects were predominantly awesome, from Moon Knight’s glowing white eyes to the way that Taweret’s ears twitched while she was talking. Khonshu. Ammit. Mr. Knight. Visually, they all looked, moved, and sounded incredible. I know that CGI was used to bring the gods to life, but man, they looked and felt like living, breathing creatures! It’s all of the little things that go into producing these projects that really should be reflected on and appreciated with Moon Knight. The costumes. The choreography. The casting. Just wow!
Then, there are the performances. Oscar Isaac. I mean, c’mon man, how freaking good was he in this!?! Easily, one of the best performances in Marvel Cinematic Universe history! Marc Spector and Steven Grant really did feel like two different people despite looking exactly the same! The accents, the attitudes, the body posturing … Isaac was sensational from start-to-finish. He was benevolent, unhinged, polite, violent, frantic, angry, funny, panicked, heartless, endearing, frail, and strong all in the same series! If you’re a regular reader of my writings, you know how high I was on Elizabeth Olsen for her performance in WandaVision last year, but Oscar Isaac in Moon Knight was every bit as good, and I don’t have the words to properly praise what he did with this character.
He was not the only one, though! Ethan Hawke was wonderful as well. He too gave a multi-layered performance that invoked feelings of remorse, feelings of dread, and feelings of contempt. As a viewer, you knew from the start that this guy was bad news, but he made you wonder at times just how evil he truly was. For all the bad things he did, Marc as Moon Knight (and especially as Jake as it were) did his fair share of bad things too. As a former avatar of Khonshu, Harrow’s worst crime was being too devout to his gods, which is easy for a lot of people to write off as lunacy, but is at the same time very, very real to many others. People love their gods and a lot of them would do anything for them. Ethan Hawke gave us a very different villain, that would actually probably be better worded as an antagonist. Just really great stuff from Ethan Hawke again, from start-to-finish.
I also have to praise May Calamawy. I think I liked her more and more with each passing episode, and she may have been my favorite part of the finale! I especially loved that sequence with the little Egyptian girl who asks Layla if she is an Egyptian superhero! That was so beautiful, and it was really well done! Layla served as the heart of Marc’s story, and some of my favorite moments from this show involved her, specifically her crush on Steven which led to Steven kissing her and then Marc punching himself in the nose. So good!
The gods … loved it! Loved them! That’s probably been obvious throughout this write-up, but I just feel like this was a really ambitious move by Marvel Studios. I stand by the human avatar thing being a bit of a cheat, but we still got Khonshu and Tawaret and Ammit and you know, this is just something that I never thought I’d see. I know I say that a lot about Marvel Studios productions, but seriously, Egyptian gods are a strange breed, especially to followers of other faiths, and incorporating giant Hippopotamus and Crocodile headed characters in a serious way was a very risky step. And to be honest, I don’t know that it was a homerun. I mean, it was for me, but for my wife for instance, it’s a tough sell when Taweret waves and Ammit emerges. They look kinda weird and for a lot of people it’s just too far out there. Again, I loved it, but I love comic books and mythology, etc, but I don’t know how much others did, necessarily. That being said, I’m perfectly fine with Marvel Studios making things just for me!
In closing, Moon Knight blew my expectations away. It was captivating, thought-provoking, intense, scary, and moving. That’s a lot for a single project to juggle, but everyone involved pulled it off. This series was a top tier production in the realm of television streaming from Marvel Studios.
Marvel Studios / The Walt Disney Company
Highlights of Moon Knight
Oscar Isaac as Marc Spector / Moon Knight / Steven Grant / Mr. Knight / Jake Lockley
Ethan Hawke as Arthur Harrow
May Calamawy as Layla El-Faouly / Scarlet Scarab
Egyptian gods Brought to Life (Khonshu, Taweret, and Ammit)
The Duat
Costume Design
Cinematography
Elements of Horror
Egyptian Setting
Psychology
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