As Moon Knight gets closer to its premiere on Disney+, director Mohamed Diab has been opening up about how important it was to him that the Marvel series focuses on Egyptian representation. In the process, he also expressed disappointment over the upcoming Black Adam film starring The Rock, which Diab feels squandered a significant opportunity to feature Egyptian talent.
“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,” Diab said in an interview with Filfan (translated by Comic Book). While Diab understood that Black Adam is simply sticking to the source material, he’s of the opinion that representation should’ve been a higher concern:
“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.” He added, “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.”
Diab also confirmed that Oscar Isaac‘s character, Marc Spector, will be Jewish in the Disney+ series despite reports to the contrary. “The journey that Marc Spector is on during our whole show is: Who am I?” Diab said before explaining that’s a universal theme we all deal with on a “day-to-day basis.”
Moon Knight premieres March 30 on Disney+. Black Adam hits theaters October 21.
(Via Comic Book)
