Moon Knight Director Mohamed Diab Has Strong Feelings About Wonder Woman 1984
When it comes to speaking out about Egyptian representation in Hollywood, "Moon Knight" director Mohamed Diab isn't one to mince words. Just a few days ago, the Ismailia-born writer and filmmaker called out DC and Warner Bros. Pictures for choosing to set its "Black Adam" movie starring Dwayne Johnson in a fictional Middle Eastern country, "as an excuse to cast non-Egyptians, when it was obviously meant to be in Egypt," Diab alleged. Now, the proud countryman has set his sights on another DC entity — "Wonder Woman 1984."
With "Moon Knight" set to drop on Disney+ in less than a week, Diab is making the media rounds to promote the new Marvel series. Along the way, he's continued to prop up his use of ancient Egyptian mythology and other themes in the show, while also pointing out examples of representation that he felt completely missed the mark. "Wonder Woman 1984" was reportedly one of them.
Diab says Wonder Woman's depiction of Egypt and its people was a 'disgrace'
Speaking to SFX magazine in a new interview, Mohamed Diab slammed DC and Warner Bros. yet again for allowing a film like "Wonder Woman 1984" to inaccurately portray Egypt the way that it did (via Deadline). According to him — and others online — the movie represents the capital of Cairo as a dusty, desert-like city with people wearing out-of-place outfits and appearing to be from the time of the Pharaohs.
"I remember seeing 'Wonder Woman 1984' and there was a big sequence in Egypt, and it was a disgrace for us," Diab said. "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."
Over on YouTube, an account called Optimistic Arab made a detailed video back in March 2021 alleging the same thing. "The country looks like a typical stereotype of what an ancient Middle Eastern city would look like," says the YouTuber. "A city-wide dusty old souk, filled with old buildings that looks more at home in 1684 than in 1984." According to Diab, this was something he wanted to drastically avoid when making "Moon Knight."
"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. "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."