Poster of Wonder Woman 1984 featuring Gal Gadot
Highlights
- Moon Knight director Mohamed Diab called out Hollywood's problematic portrayal of Egypt
- Diab gave reference of DC films Wonder Woman 1984, Black Adam while describing 'misrepresentation'
- Moon Knight series connects with Egypt and the mythology of the country
Marvel Studios' upcoming miniseries Moon Knight will see Oscar Isaac donning the superhero suit. The character of Moon Knight, who is known for his dissociative identity disorder, is the secret identity of Marc Spector. Spector, a former CIA operative turns into a mercenary, who dies during a job in Sudan but is revived and turned into the conduit of the Egyptian moon god Khonshu.
The series has a major connection with Egypt. One of the directors of the series, Mohamed Diab, is also Egyptian. The filmmaker and screenwriter, known for movies Cairo 678 and Amira, has called out Wonder Woman franchise director Patty Jenkins over how Egypt has been portrayed in the 2020 sequel of the DCEU film, starring Gal Gadot. He said that Wonder Woman 1984 reinforces stereotypes about Egypt. Even before Diab called out the movie, it was accused of misrepresenting Egypt by watchers.
Diab said about Wonder Woman 1984, "You never see Cairo. You always see Jordan shot for Cairo, Morocco shot for Cairo, sometimes Spain shot for Cairo. This really angers us. I remember seeing Wonder Woman 1984 and there was a big sequence in Egypt and it was a disgrace for us. You had a sheik – that doesn’t make any sense to us. Egypt looked like a country from the Middle Ages. It looked like the desert.”
Not just Wonder Woman 1984, Diab also called out the upcoming DC film Black Adam, starring Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson. Diab claims he was "annoyed" with DC for setting Black Adam in the fictional Middle-Eastern country of Kahndaq "as an excuse to cast non-Egyptians, when it was obviously meant to be in Egypt."
As for Moon Knight, the series also stars Ethan Hawke as Arthur Harrow the mysterious cult leader, the late Gaspard Ulliel (who died in a skiing accident in January) as the villain Anton Mogart, a.k.a. Midnight Man. May Calamawy will also appear in an undisclosed role. It will stream on Disney+Hotstar from March 30.
