Director Mohd Diab Blasts ‘Wonder Woman 1984’ For Representation Of Egypt

Los Angeles, March 24: MCU Moon Knight director Mohammed Diab has opened up on DC’s Wonder Woman 1984’s depiction of Egypt and he has been less than impressed. The Egyptian screenwriter has made no secret his disappointment with Western cinema’s standard representation of Egypt. Diab initially wanted to comment on this in Moon Knight, which uses Ancient Egyptian mythology.

“In my pitch, there was a big part about Egypt, and how inauthentically it has been portrayed throughout Hollywood’s history,” Diab told SFX Magazine in its new feture. “It’s always exotic – we call it orientalism. It dehumanizes us. We are always naked, we are always sexy, we are always bad, we are always over the top.”

In the film, Diana (Gal Gadot) and Steve (Chris Pine) are seen visiting Egypt with many important scenes of the movie being shot in the country. Diab has cited Hollywood’s projection of Egypt and its stereotypical attitude towards Middle Easterners as an atrocious blunder.

Speaking about Wonder Woman 1984, he said: “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.” As Ancient Egypt plays a great role in the show incorporating mythos, curses, spells, attires, culture, tradition etc Diab was greatly concerned with keeping Moon Knight both great fun but also accurate with Egyptian culture. “

“[It’s] part of the show because it’s part of the comic book,” continued Diab. “It’s part of how he gets his powers. It’s ingrained in it,” he added. “There was definitely room to play [in Moon Knight] but keep it as authentic as possible, in the realm of being fantastical. Even in the original comic books they did a great job of researching and trying to make Egypt authentic.”

The series centers around an American mercenary named Marc Spector played by Oscar Isaac who suffers from a strong case of DID and becomes the agent of Egyptian moon god Khonshu who turns him into his own champion, a protector of all travelers of the night. The show will be released on March 30 on Disney+. UNI