Moon Knight director’s favorite Oscar Isaac scene was cut from the show

The season finale of Moon Knight dropped last week on Disney+, ending the series in spectacular fashion. The Oscar Isaac-fronted show is Marvel Studios’ first TV series of 2022, and by all accounts it’s doing pretty well.

Moon Knight has gotten a lot of praise in particular for Oscar Isaac’s multilayered performance as Marc Spector/Steven Grant, a superhero dealing with dissociative identity disorder. The show has also done a wonderful job with representation; Moon Knight is a story rooted in Egyptian mythology, and it has Egyptian talent both behind and in front of the camera. After director and executive producer Mohamed Diab blasted Wonder Woman 1984’s depiction of Egypt just before Moon Knight released, there were high expectations for how this show would handle showing the country and its culture. And now that we’ve seen Moon Knight, it’s easy to say that it most certainly does a better job.

Diab directed four out of Moon Knight’s six episodes, and according to Oscar Isaac, has been the “steward” of the show throughout its production. Now that it’s all out there, Diab is making press rounds to talk about its successes — as well as one of his favorite scenes that didn’t make it into the finished show.

Moon Knight director’s favorite Oscar Isaac scene was cut

Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter, Diab talked about working with Oscar Isaac. “I think he would say that I was just encouraging him, but I always tell him, ‘You’re going to win everything,’ because he is always great. He’s a genius actor,” Diab said. “The irony is that my favorite scene of his got cut. It was in episode six. As great as everything else was, he actually topped it with something even better. He confronted his mom in a white void, and he was going back and forth between Marc and Steven. And oh my god. That scene by itself is an Oscar-worthy performance. Hopefully, Marvel releases that scene one day because Oscar was a genius.”

If only they gave out Oscars for television shows, then we could start an #OscarForOscar campaign.

Jokes aside, Isaac’s performance was next level good throughout Moon Knight. If the man doesn’t win an Emmy or some other award for it, it’ll be a crime.

As for that deleted scene, it sounds pretty intense. During “Asylum,” it was revealed that Marc’s condition was caused by his mother’s abuse. There’s no doubt that a scene of Isaac confronting her would have been heartbreakingly good. Let’s hope Disney decides to release it at some point.

Egyptian representation in Moon Knight

Diab also talked about the Egyptian representation in Moon Knight. In addition to having creatives of Egyptian descent behind the camera, the show also features Marvel’s first Egyptian superhero in Layla El-Faouly (May Calamawy), who gained powers in the season finale when she became the avatar of the goddess Taweret.

“I want to thank the writers for coming up with the idea that Layla is Egyptian,” Diab said. “When me and Sarah [Goher] — who’s a [consulting] producer on the show and my wife — came to the show, we definitely helped shape her. And then when May [Calamawy] came along, she became her best ally and all of us together chipped in to make her the character all that she is.

"And the moment that she becomes a superhero, you don’t know what that means to Egypt. My daughter, when she was five, wanted to straighten her curly hair because she never felt like she saw herself in any of the Disney movies and cartoons. So to see this woman — who looks like an everyday Egyptian, with beautiful curly hair — become a superhero is something huge. In a way, a lot of people from third-world countries feel culturally defeated, and we feel like the West is superior in a way. But now, Egyptians were behind the camera and in front of the camera, making one of Disney’s best shows, so this show is a national pride. People treat Moon Knight as if it’s our Black Panther. You don’t know how big it is."

Will Oscar Isaac and May Calamawy return to the MCU?

Of course, one of the biggest questions on everyone’s mind is when we’ll see Marc/Steven/Jake Lockley and Layla El-Faouly return. Marvel Studios is known for weaving its characters through multiple films and shows, but at this point no plans have been announced for more appearances. Isaac only signed on to do Moon Knight as a limited series, meaning he has no contractual obligation to return to the MCU. Despite this, Diab is pretty confident we’ll see the characters again.

“100 percent because I know how much they enjoyed it,” Diab said, when asked if Isaac and Calamawy will reprise their roles. “They loved it. I talked to Oscar today, and he told us all on Zoom that Moon Knight is the thing that he’s most proud of in his life. So I’d think he would want to come back.”

But just because Isaac and Calamawy want to return doesn’t necessarily mean it will be in a second season of Moon Knight; this is the MCU after all, and the options for cameos and role reprisals are limitless. For Diab’s part, he knows exactly what project he would want Kevin Feige and the rest of the brass at Marvel Studios to greenlight: “Moon Knight, the film.”

All six episodes of Moon Knight are available now to stream on Disney+.

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