Moon Knight introduced us to Layla El-Faouly in its second episode, but who plays her and why is the character important to the show?
If you haven’t watched Marvel’s Moon Knight, you’ve probably still heard about it at some point in the last week. The show made its Disney Plus debut last Wednesday and has been among the biggest trending topics in the world of TV ever since.
If you did watch the premiere episode, you might have found yourself wondering about the mysterious Layla El-Faouly. Though the character did not appear, she did pop up a lot of times on the phone of Marc Spector / Steven Grant.
*** Contains spoilers from Moon Knight season 1, episode 2 ***
Now, we have officially been introduced to Layla and it’s clear that she has some history with Marc. But how will she factor into the show going forward? Here’s everything you need to know.
Who plays Layla El-Faouly on Moon Knight?
Layla El-Faouly is portrayed by May Calamawy. The Egyptian-Palestinian actress was born in 1986 and has appeared in various films and TV shows in the last decade, including episodes of Madam Secretary, The Brave, The Long Road Home, and FBI. Her biggest role outside of Moon Knight is that of Dena Hassan in Hulu’s Ramy.
It was announced that she would join the Marvel series in January 2021, with much speculation in regards to who she would be playing as the role initially remained a mystery.
Who is Layla El-Faouly in Moon Knight?
There has been a lot of intrigue in regards to Layla, particularly because the character doesn’t exist in the comics. However, as Moon Knight episode 2 revealed, the character is the wife of Marc Spector and she tracked Steven Grant all the way to London in the hopes of finding her husband.
As for why he left her? Well, that’s seemingly down to the fact that Marc wants to leave his days as the avenging Moon Knight in the past but he’s afraid of Khonshu’s interest in having Layla become his next avatar. Thus, he put distance between himself and her in the hopes that it would protect her from becoming the next champion of Khonshu.
Whether or not Layla will remain an original MCU creation is unknown. There was initial speculation that she could be a variation of Moon Knight’s comic book love interest Marlene Alraune. Now that we know Layla El-Faouly is, in fact, his wife in the show, that fan theory may gather even more traction in the weeks ahead.
Either way, Layla will likely be a major part of the story, and it will be interesting to see how she comes into play in the power struggle between Steven, Marc and Khonshu.
Moon Knight releases new episodes on Disney Plus each Wednesday for the next four weeks.
Are you enjoying Moon Knight? What do you make of Layla El-Faouly? Let us know in the comments below!