The Moon Knight finale, “Gods and Monsters”, provided the MCU’s first Egyptian superhero in May Calamawy’s Layla, who became the avatar of the goddess Tawaret. As Tawaret’s avatar, Layla became the Scarlet Scarab and teamed up with the re-resurrected Moon Knight to stop Arthur Harrow from unleashing Ammit’s preemptive justice on the world.
While the episode gave closure to central plot of the series and left Marc and Steven in a seemingly good place, what it did not give was any sort of closure to Layla’s arc, leaving fans wondering what’s next for the newly empowered hero. According to director Mohamed Diab, the open-ended nature of Layla’s journey was intentional:
I would say that it’s left open so we can play with it the way we want. She can stay in Egypt. She can go back to London. She can be a superhero. I can’t wait for myself to see her and Taweret on a journey driving each other crazy. I think it’s left open for a reason because in the next journey, you need to think of all those things and flesh them out in a very thorough way.
Diab’s creative decision is smart in that it doesn’t paint him, or whoever picks up the character next, into any corners. By letting Layla walk away without any hints as to where she might turn up next, there can be no sense of expectations on the part of audiences as to what “should” be next for the Scarlet Scarab, only myriad possibilities of what COULD be next, as Diab indicates. Whatever is next for the hero, Calamawy’s turn in Moon Knight has set her star in the sky and provided another new hero whose importance off-screen transcends whatever comes next on-screen.
