“Are you an Egyptian superhero?” asks a young Egyptian girl in Cairo in Disney’s latest Marvel offering, Moon Knight. “I am” answers Layla El-Faouly, towering in her commanding white and gold winged suit. With those two words, Layla, Disney and Marvel create history as we finally witness an Arab superhero on screen. And it’s a woman.From the offset, the new Disney+ series is steeped in Ancient Egyptian mythology and modern culture. Even one of the Arab world’s most famous musicians, Abdel Halim Hafez, has his music making an appearance in the opening scenes of the first episode. The credits are also full of Arab talent: Moon Knight is directed by Mohamed Diab, edited by Ahmed Hafez, and its music is composed by Hesham Nazih. There are also a number of Arab actors playing leading characters, such as Egyptian Palestinian May Calamaway as Layla and Egyptian British Khalid Abdalla as Salim.Calamawy recently said, “I cannot represent every Arab woman or every Egyptian woman…I just hope that all Arab women can watch that and feel like a superhero, and that they have that space on that big scale.”
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