Marvel Studios has been open in making a greater push towards diversity and representation across the film and television lineup, and there’s no better recent or upcoming example than Moon Knight.
The comic book favorite’s origins are steeped in Egyptology, something that’s been reflected in two important members of the team on either side of the camera.
Director and executive producer Mohamed Diab has underlined the importance of authenticity in regards to the episodes he’s helmed, while his approach was hailed by star May Calamawy, who was born in Bahrain to a Palestinian mother and Egyptian father.
However, Diab has some issues with the DCEU’s upcoming Black Adam, saying in an interview with Filfan that he wasn’t pleased to discover that Dwayne Johnson’s superhero debut had substituted Egypt and Egyptian actors in favor of the fictional Kahndaq, although he did acknowledge that the movie simply drew inspiration from the comics.
“I wanted to showcase Egyptian talents as much as I could. Every culture should be represented by its people so I hired actors, an editor, a costume designer, an art director & a composer who are all Egyptian.
I was really annoyed with DC when they set Black Adam in a fictional middle eastern country as an excuse to cast non-Egyptians, when it was obviously meant to be in Egypt. Representation opportunities shouldn’t be wasted… But it’s not a full mistake since it’s based on an iteration of the comics that doesn’t mention Egypt.”
Moon Knight has remained true to the title hero’s beginnings on the printed page, but so too has Black Adam in its own way, which means it’s difficult to make a direct like-for-like comparison between the two. At the end of the day, let’s just hope that Marvel’s event series and DC’s feature film send everyone home happy by the time the credits roll.
