Moon Knight Director Explains Significance Of MCU Show's Layla Twist

WARNING: Contains spoilers for Moon Knight episode 6.

Moon Knight director Mohamed Diab explains the significance behind Layla El-Faouly becoming the Scarlet Scarab in the finale. Layla was first introduced in the MCU Disney+ series as the wife of Marc Spector, a mercenary who serves Khonshu as his avatar. As the show progressed, her story unfolded alongside Marc's as well as his Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID) alter Steven Grant's, revealing her to be much more than just a love interest.

The opening scene of Moon Knight episode 3 revealed more about Layla's life, most notably the mysterious fate of her archeologist father as well as her efforts to take stolen artifacts from thieves and return them to their rightful places. This is how she joined Marc in their shared adventures, one of which included finding the scarab that led to Ammit's tomb — something they never accomplished together, but Marc instead took up on his own. Her fighting skills were put on full display in that same episode, which revealed how Khonshu had been blackmailing Marc into maintaining his Moon Knight service by saying he would take Layla as his next avatar. With Steven warning Layla of this in episode 4, she knew not to accept that offer later on in the finale. Episode 6 did, however, see Layla become an avatar to someone else: Taweret herself. Layla transformed into none other than the Scarlet Scarab, a perfect fulfillment of how her father referred to her as his "little scarab."

In an exclusive interview with Screen Rant, Diab shared just how deep the significance is behind this twist, which all comes down to the extremely important idea of representation. Diab said that Moon Knight itself has been treated as a "national pride" by Egyptians thanks to its realistic and meaningful portrayal of Cairo and Egypt as a whole. As for Layla herself, Diab credited the writers for the idea of making her character Egyptian before going on to share how important it was to reveal an Egyptian hero like Layla with her natural hair and all her strength to inspire and relate to more audiences. See everything Diab shared below:

I want to tell you a small story about my daughter. When she was five, she told me she wanted to straighten her beautiful curly hair. Why? Because she always sees that every Disney Princess has straight hair. Today, giving people that example of a hero that looks like them, I'm seeing messages not just from the Middle East or from Egypt - but even from South Asia. Everyone who's brown feels like, "Okay, you know what? I can relate to this. I feel it and I love it." I'm so proud of that. I'm so proud to be part of that, and I can't thank Marvel and the writers and everyone involved enough for the character and for the whole show.

Moon Knight has resonated very well with many audiences, but Egyptians in particular, especially with the inclusion of credits songs such as Ahmed Saad's "El Melouk." It played in Moon Knight episode 2 just after Marc looked out over the city of Cairo with the pyramids in the far distance, which took many Arabs by pleasant surprise. The series has done a lot of work in the area of representation between this and the careful and accurate handling of DID, which shows how much the cast and crew truly care about what they're putting on display for their audiences.

Though Moon Knight season 2 hasn't yet been confirmed, the ending of episode 6 as well as its post-credits scene surely allows for more of the story to be told. There's still much left to be shared if the creators so wished, such as Marc finally and fully opening up to Layla the way he's done with Steven. The biggest hint towards a Moon Knight season 2, however, is no doubt the formal introduction of the alter Jake Lockley, who still serves Khonshu without Marc or Steven's knowledge. Now, with Layla stepping in as the Scarlet Scarab, there's also even more she could add to the Moon Knight story should it continue to be told in the MCU.

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