Warning: This article contains spoilers for the season finale of Moon Knight
While fans are going wild over Oscar Isaac’s acting chops in Disney Plus’ Moon Knight, they’re also singing the praises of its breakout new star, May Calamawy, who plays Marc Spector’s wife Layla El-Faouly in the series. And Moon Knight executive producer Grant Curtis is excited about her as well.
Warning: spoilers follow below
Fans were already taken with the archeologist/adventurer when she first appeared in episode two of the season and she fast became a favorite, but her transformation into a legit superhero in her own right in the season finale has been superlative and is already being regarded as one of the high points of the entire series. And that’s all by design, according to Curtis.
Curtis stated in a recent Entertainment Weekly interview,
“We realized — through [head writer] Jeremy Slater, through [director] Mohamed Diab, through May Calamawy, through [directors] Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead — was that this character of Layla El-Faouly was kind of a superhero from frame one, when we first meet her.”
Layla was not originally intended to become a bonafide superhero in her own right. She was originally imagined as an update of Moon Knight’s original aide and lover, Marlene Alraune, from the comic books. But the series creators couldn’t deny her potential not only to help Moon Knight, but actually to go toe to toe in combat alongside him as a reimagining of the original Marvel superhero Scarlet Scarab.
“In early drafts of the story she didn’t become the Scarlet Scarab, but as we continued to look at her journey with May and everyone else, we realized that we had a superhero in the making. Part of that superhero’s backstory really came into alignment nicely with the Scarlet Scarab from the comics. So we merged the two.”
– Grant Curtis
She’s already made a great impression, leaving most fans of the show feeling a lot like the young Egyptian girl who stares agog at Layla and asks her, “Are you an Egyptian superhero?” The feeling seems mutual; Curtis reacted to seeing the character with a cheer.
Curtis told EW,
“In episode 6, when the rock slab goes tumbling down and the Scarlet Scarab, the first Egyptian superhero in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, comes out and steps into frame and spreads her wings and has that great smile on her face, I stand up and cheer.”
Moon Knight is currently streaming on Disney Plus.