The mysterious Layla makes her ‘Moon Knight’ debut in Episode 2. Here’s her backstory

This story accommodates spoilers for Episode 2 of “Moon Knight” on Disney+.

Within the closing moments of “Moon Knight” Episode 2, the story jumps to the place it has been foreshadowed it could be headed: Egypt.

However not earlier than loads of different reveals shake up Steven Grant’s (Oscar Isaac) world.

Selecting up within the aftermath of the scary jackal assault within the collection premiere, this episode — titled “Summon the Go well with” — sees Steven uncover extra about Marc Spector (additionally Isaac), together with that he’s married. Steven additionally loses his job, will get to know Arthur Harrow (Ethan Hawke) and manifests an excellent swimsuit of his personal to attempt to fend off one other magical monster.

All of the supernatural Marvel “issues which can be taking place to Steven truly find yourself reflecting this extremely private drawback he’s having,” mentioned Aaron Moorhead, who directed the episode with Justin Benson, which is “to repair his damaged id and to reclaim his life.”

However by the tip of “Summon the Go well with,” it’s Marc that’s within the driver’s seat of his and Steven’s shared physique, and he is aware of he has to go to Egypt to cease Harrow.

The prospect to point out “Egypt within the current and previously” was a part of what drew govt producer Mohamed Diab to “Moon Knight.”

“I’ve all the time felt prefer it’s by no means correct, the Egyptian portrayal in cinema,” mentioned Diab. “It’s all the time seen by way of this lens of Orientalism, the place we’re so unique, or girls are oppressed, or males are unhealthy or terrorists — these sorts of tropes.”

For the Egyptian filmmaker, it was necessary that “Moon Knight” present Egypt as it’s.

“It’s not simply pyramids and the desert behind it,” mentioned Diab. “Cairo is likely one of the largest cities on the planet. In the event you take a look at the opposite aspect of the pyramid, it’s on the heart of town.” And that precise picture is captured within the final shot of the episode.

Diab added that “it was [also] crucial to create Layla,” the mysterious voice that was attempting to achieve Marc on the cellphone Steven found in the course of the first episode.

Who’s Layla?

Layla El-Faouly, performed by Egyptian Palestinian actor Might Calamawy, makes her official debut in “Moon Knight” Episode 2, when she almost runs over Steven. Steven has no thought who she is, however Layla believes it’s all an elaborate ruse by Marc — her husband — as a result of she doesn’t know that he lives with dissociative id dysfunction.

Based on Diab, Layla was not initially written as Egyptian. After he and his spouse, Sarah Goher, who can also be a producer on “Moon Knight,” joined the collection, they labored with Marvel and the writers to make her an Egyptian character.

Calamawy described Layla as “somebody who has loads of therapeutic to do.”

She “is confronted with somebody she cares about deeply going by way of a severe inner battle,” mentioned Calamawy. “In supporting them, it forces her to step into herself extra, and in doing that, she develops extra confidence and belief in herself and experiences loads of therapeutic and development.”

For Calamawy, it was necessary that Layla was not “somebody simply in service of a person. I wished her to have her personal journey, and to know her personal private mission and what she’s after.”

“It was necessary for me to attract inspiration from Center Japanese girls,” she added. “The best way folks current themselves in several cultures is the great thing about variety. And I discover that Arab girls have a really unassuming, tender power to them, which could not all the time be evident on the surface, however it’s there.”

What’s the story behind that swimsuit Steven summoned?

Oscar Isaac as Mr. Knight in “Moon Knight.”

(Marvel Studios)

When Steven and Layla are being chased by a vicious jackal summoned by Harrow, Layla insists that Steven must manifest “a swimsuit” to save lots of them. Layla means the Moon Knight swimsuit Marc manifests, however Steven just isn’t Marc — he as an alternative summons an all-white three-piece swimsuit (and masks).

Comedian e book followers will acknowledge the look because the one worn by Mr. Knight. The problem was easy methods to incorporate that look with a logic that labored for this interpretation of the “Moon Knight” story.

As a result of the collection is “about these externalizations of those internal conflicts and internal emotions, it made sense to us that the swimsuit is a manifestation of their thought of what a superhero swimsuit is,” Isaac mentioned. “For Steven, as a result of he’s not somebody that’s versed in superhero capes and struggle and all that, in terms of him developing with an thought for an excellent swimsuit, it’s a three-piece swimsuit. As a result of the phrase ‘swimsuit’ for him means one thing completely different. In a means, it’s a manifestation of their creativeness.”

In comics, the Mr. Knight swimsuit initially appeared as an alternate costume for Moon Knight throughout a particular mission. It wasn’t till a 2014 concern of “Moon Knight” by Warren Ellis and Declan Shalvey that “Mr. Knight, a involved citizen” was launched.

On this comedian e book collection, Mr. Knight just isn’t Steven’s vigilante alter-ego however the public-facing id of Moon Knight when he consults on police investigations. No much less violent or succesful than Moon Knight, Mr. Knight has the advantage of avoiding any felony penalties from Moon Knight’s vigilante actions.