Although Moon Knight focuses on the tribulations of a mentally disturbed protagonist (Marc Spector/Steven Grant/Moon Knight), the image of a specific Egyptian deity appears to have affected the whole last half of Marvel’s Disney+ event series.
If you’ve seen Moon Knight Episode 4, you’ll undoubtedly be able to identify which picture it is. We never expected the Marvel Cinematic Universe to infuse new lease of life into one of the world’s oldest spiritual symbols, yet here we are!
After villain Arthur Harrow shoots down Marc Spector in effort to ultimately rescue the Egyptian goddess Ammit, the finale of Moon Knight Episode 4 “The Tomb” offers a twisted shock. Rather than dying as a result of his scars, Marc awakens in an alternate universe as a mentally ill patient being treated in a psychiatric facility. Marc’s strange new world becomes even stranger when he discovers that his Steven Grant persona exists in this new place as a completely separate person; both Marc and Steven’s minds are blown when they discover the doorway to the ward blocked by an Egyptian deity that resembles a giant hippopotamus Taweret.
Jeremy Slater, Moon Knight’s writer and executive produce reacted to a fan twitter post on how an actual poster chart of Egyptian deities made its way on Moon Knight, “That’s the one! That poster changed the entire back half of our show.“
Jeremy also said,
Right from the very first week, Marvel provided us with a ton of reference material on Egyptology, and on ancient Egyptian gods and deities. One of those pieces of material was a laminated poster that had like a little kid, cartoon drawings of all the different gods — one of those gods was Taweret. I spent that entire first week of our writers’ room, just staring at that. Then finally, at some point, I couldn’t take any more. I interrupted whatever we were talking about and I was like, ‘Guys, we have something much more important, which is, how do I get this hippo into the show?
Well, it appears that Jeremy Slater was onto something, since Taweret has become an immediate fan favourite of the show thanks to that revelation moment.
