Shortly after watching the Moon Knight finale, we were able to sit back down with executive producer Grant Curtis to get all the details on bringing this unique entry into the Marvel Cinematic Universe to a close.
Check out the full interview below!
ROHAN: The series was a bit of a slow burn, but episodes five and six really kicked it into high gear, with the finale bringing everything to a close in epic fashion. Was this how you always envisioned the season playing out?
GRANT: In episodes one and four, trying to lay track for all the answers, all is too strong of a word, but the answers that come in episode five, and in those first four episodes, getting the audience emotionally invested in the characters, and specifically in Marc and Steven, so episode five, learning all that backstory, learning what circumstances created the dissociative identity disorder, really make that impactful.
Then, take the audience on that journey and start giving them the answers that they'd been looking for and wanting after episodes one through four. That's really what that was about and I think that really is the strength of Oscar's performance. I think people watch episode five and I think you're just emotionally raw after that, because it's such an emotional journey Oscar takes us on, and then you have episode six, which brings a lot of things to fruition and then clearly causes certain questions to be raised. I think it's a fun journey to take the audience on.
ROHAN: The big mic drop moment came during the mid-credits, where we finally met Jake Lockley and saw he was still working with Khonshu. Can you tell me more about how that reveal came together and why you wanted to wait until the very end before revealing him?
GRANT: Well, as you can imagine, from seeing all six episodes, Jake is peppered throughout the show, and his presence is peppered throughout the show, but it was one of those things when we talked about, you know, Mark and Steven’s most satisfying emotional arc. It was one of those things when we started to look at how Jake Lockley plays into that.
It just seemed like emotionally, narratively, that brought their journey full circle, but also, hinted at potential things to come. So, it was never like, from day one, when we were sitting the writers room, we never said we have to end with Jake Lockley. However, once that question, once that possibility was put forth in the writers room, we realized that was a pretty good North Star to be shooting towards for the end of the show and it naturally fell into place. I think the audience likes finally seen a little bit of Jake, and seeing what we hinted at in the previous five episodes.
ROHAN: Now that Marc Spector and Steven Grant are working in tandem, but still obviously oblivious about Jake Lockley and Khonshu, what would you say comes next for this pair?
GRANT: It's basically a question about the future, which is always a great conversation to be had with Mr. Feige, but what I will tell you this, what I do think the show successfully does and Oscar and Ethan and May successfully do, along with Mohamed along with Benson and Moorhead is create a world and characters that people want to continue on a journey with.
Where that is, I don't know, that is truly a question for Kevin, hut where Mark and Steven land after this. It's a great question, but Oscar created such a compelling character, along with Jeremy Slater, our head writer, but I do think people are extremely curious as to what the journey is ahead.
ROHAN: Layla never seemed like she wanted to be an avatar, but the finale sees her suit up alongside Moon Knight. When did you realize that becoming a superhero was her destiny, and what were those conversations like?
GRANT: It was one of those things where, Layla’s character was always amazing on the page when we got to Budapest, because Jeremy and our writers did an amazing job, but, in Budapest, what we used to do, in Cairo, we would meet on the weekends with the actors, with Oscar and Ethan and May and Benson and Moorhead and Mohamed and Mohamed’s wife who was my producing partner Sarah, along with the writers there, Peter and Sabir, and we read the script, and we would just go through the script, script after script, and analyze the script, what can be plussed? What can we work on?
And it was one of the things, Layla was a great character going into Budapest, but once May got on board, and one Mohamed started dialing up the Egypt quotient, that's really where the Scarlet Scarab truly emerged. That was one of the things that was great about episode six, as you're alluding to, seeing the Scarlet Scarab’s journey be presented to the world, a new Egyptian superhero, was was was one of the great aspects of episode six that I love. I love hitting the rewind button and watching that slab of rock come down and the Scarlet Scarab emerge. Pretty cool. Sends chills up my spine to this day.
ROHAN: Moon Knight takes place in its own corner of the MCU and we don't really get any outside connections, but were there ever any discussions about introducing other Marvel characters, maybe like Blade, Daredevil, or Punisher?
GRANT: From very early on, obviously, you know, the MCU is wide open and, there were conversations about other points of connectivity. It was never a conscious effort, but the more we continue to focus on the intense character study, that is Mark Spector, that is Steven Grant, and, obviously, that is Jake Lockley.
The more we focused on that narrative, we want to stay in that narrative, we want to stay in MarC's world, we wanted to stay in Steven’s world, we wanted to stay in Jake's world and there just wasn't the need or the opportunity for other connectivity points as you were on Marc and Steven’s journey. So, we never started out consciously saying, our connectivity threads are going to be thin and few and far between. It was just how do we tell the best Moon Knight story and this is how it played out.
ROHAN: Today is the 15-year anniversary of Spider-Man 3, and it was just the 20-year anniversary of Spider-Man two days ago. You worked on both of those films, and I was just wondering what its legacy means to you today as you continue to tell new superhero stories like Moon Knight?
GRANT: What continues to jazz my engines and keep me interested is the characters themselves. Peter Parker, Marc Spector, Tony Stark, just what I mean by that is Marvel movies are character studies, first and foremost. I love Spider Man, I love Moon Knight, I love Iron Man, but what gets me turning the page in the comics and also continuing to watch the journey that Kevin and Lou and Victoria and Brad continue to take us on through the MCU is the characters. That's what I continue, that's what Sam took us on that journey with Peter Parker and Tobey, and that's what Kevin Feige continues to take the journey on and MCU is character first, and it shows.
You love these characters, you're invested in these characters. When Oscar Isaac, in episode five, is sitting there rocking his yarmulke in tears, it breaks my heart to this day, and I've seen that episode so many times that I can almost quote it. But it's what Oscar brings to the table, it's what Ethan brings the table, it’s what May brings to the table, it’s what F. Murray Abraham brings to the table that continues to keep me getting out of bed in the morning.
When Steven Grant, a mild-mannered gift-shop employee, becomes plagued with blackouts and memories of another life, he discovers he has dissociative identity disorder and shares a body with mercenary Marc Spector. As Steven/Marc’s enemies converge upon them, they must navigate their complex identities while thrust into a deadly mystery among the powerful gods of Egypt.
Moon Knight is now streaming!