Warning: This article contains spoilers for Moon Knight Season 1.
Moon Knight had a few surprising moments in the season finale, including the major reveal around Layla El-Faouly, Marc Spector’s wife (played by May Calamawy).
We first meet Layla in Episode 1, where Steven (Oscar Isaac) picks up Marc’s (also Oscar Isaac) phone and discovers her existence. She’s been along for the Moon Knight journey all along, offering her fighting skills when Marc or Steven needs help, and serving as a gut check whenever either is in doubt or needs help making a decision.
There’s also her backstory, which is intertwined with Marc’s origin as Moon Knight. As the daughter of an archaeologist, Layla and her father worked on ancient Egyptian tombs. When mercenaries (including Marc) came to loot one of the tombs, her father was killed. Marc refused to kill any of the civilians at the tomb, and was nearly murdered himself. That’s when he became Moon Knight, and later, he grew close to Layla.
In the season finale of the show, Layla’s arc comes to a close, culminating in her becoming (as one character calls it) “an Egyptian superhero.” Fans of Moon Knight might have been a little confused. Is she from the comics? Or is the Marvel Cinematic Universe creating a brand new superhero, right here before our eyes? And, based on how she got her superhero powers…is it permanent?
We’ve got everything you need to know about Layla, plus what her character means for the MCU below.
Marvel Studios
Is Layla from Moon Knight in the comics?
Technically, no. Layla is actually an MCU creation. But she’s based on a crucial Moon Knight character, Marlene. In the comics, Marlene serves as Marc Spector’s girlfriend, and is often a damsel in distress for him to save, and a source of sanity for Marc’s mental illness. Her origins are similar to Layla’s–Marc saw her father’s death and then saved Marlene from her own demise at the hands of his double-crossing mercenary team–but the outcome is different. Marlene never becomes a superhero—she’s always someone to be saved.
Is Layla a superhero now?
Technically, yes. Anyone in the MCU with superpowers who’s using them for good? By definition, that makes a superhero. That said, Layla made it clear from the beginning with the goddess Taweret (the god whose avatar she became) that Layla taking on the goddess’ superpowers is temporary, so we’ll have to see if she actually wants to keep up the superhero gig, or if she just took on the responsibility to help Moon Knight in the moment. The latter has happened a couple times before—remember the times when Pepper Potts made her way into armored suits designed by Tony Stark to help fight bad guys.
What is Layla’s costume?
Layla is currently the avatar for Taweret, the goddess of fertility (who also deals with the afterlife). Taweret has the head of a hippo, and the body parts of a feline and crocodile.
Layla’s costume, on the other hand, looks more like the Falcon’s costume. She has bulletproof golden wings, and sports two swords. It’s a far cry from the more tongue-in-cheek design of Moon Knight, who in every sense of word screams nighttime. Even when he opens his cloak to fly, it looks like the shape of a moon!
Layla also doesn’t have an official superhero name, and we don’t know if Taweret has imbued her with any special powers besides the standard god-level healing powers and strength. Let’s correct that—we don’t know for now, but surely we should learn more the next time we see Moon Knight, whether that’s in a movie, or in a potential Season 2.
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