The Wild Moon Knight Love Story We Almost Got To See
The Marvel Studios Disney+ miniseries "Moon Knight" has been messing with fans' heads since it first introduced a live-action version of Marc Spector and Steven Grant (Oscar Isaac). Through the series' first five episodes, audiences have come to learn why the two men share a body and how Steven's personality has grown stronger as villain Arthur Harrow (Ethan Hawke) seeks to unleash the Egyptian goddess Ammit on the rest of the world for judgment.
Layla (May Calamawy), introduced in the first episode as Marc's wife, helps Steven and Marc on their mission to Cairo to stop Harrow, though she has not been seen on-screen since Harrow shoots Marc in Alexander the Great's tomb, leaving her status uncertain. Fans of "Moon Knight" hoping to catch more of Layla in the series finale may be surprised to learn that she was not originally written to be Marc and Steven's love interest in the series at all.
Marvel almost introduced Echo as a love interest in Moon Knight before Hawkeye
In a recent interview on the podcast "The Ringer-Verse," "Moon Knight" creator, writer, and executive producer Jeremy Slater said there were a number of differences between the original pitch for the series and what made it on-screen. Fans of the Marvel Cinematic Universe might be especially interested to learn that the showrunners had originally considered making Maya Lopez, aka Echo (Alaqua Cox), the love interest for Marc and Steven rather than Layla.
"At the time, Echo was going to be our love interest, solely based on the fact that they knew Marvel liked the character of Echo and was trying to find a show to put her in," Slater said on the podcast. Ultimately, Slater noted that Echo did not fit well within the story "Moon Knight" tells and said he was relieved when Marvel Studios decided to insert the character into the 2021 miniseries "Hawkeye" instead.
In "Hawkeye," Maya is introduced as Wilson Fisk's, aka Kingpin (Vincent D'Onofrio), adopted daughter and the leader of the Tracksuit Mafia who seeks revenge on Ronin for murdering her biological father. Echo fights with Kate Bishop (Hailee Steinfeld) and Clint Barton (Jeremy Renner) multiple times before Clint reveals to her that he was Ronin and that Kingpin actually ordered her father's death. Audiences last heard Echo presumably shoot Kingpin off-screen at the end of "Hawkeye," leaving the fate of both characters uncertain moving forward.
Marvel Studios is currently producing a Disney+ miniseries starring Echo, with Kingpin and Matt Murdock, aka Daredevil (Charlie Cox), reportedly expected to appear as well (via MovieWeb).