‘Moon Knight’ Director Slams ‘Wonder Woman 1984’ Over Egypt Scenes: ‘It Was a Disgrace’

variety.com:

Zack Sharf Marvel’s upcoming series “Moon Knight” features four of six episodes directed by Mohamed Diab, the Egyptian screenwriter and filmmaker best known for his feature directorial debut “Cairo 678” and his 2021 Venice world premiere “Amira.” The Marvel series incorporates elements of Ancient Egyptian mythology in telling the story of Marc Spector (Oscar Isaac), a mercenary who becomes the conduit of the Egyptian moon god Khonshu, so it was of upmost importance for Diab when signing onto the series that it did right by Egyptian representation.“In my pitch, there was a big part about Egypt, and how inauthentically it has been portrayed throughout Hollywood’s history,” Diab recently told SFX Magazine. “It’s always exotic – we call it orientalism.

It dehumanizes us. We are always naked, we are always sexy, we are always bad, we are always over the top.” Diab pointed to “Wonder Woman 1984” as a recent example of Hollywood failing Egypt.

The Patty Jenkins-directed sequel ignited backlash upon release in December 2020 due to a storyline set in Egypt that many viewers accused of being stereotypical and downright racist.“You never see Cairo,” Diab said. “You always see Jordan shot for Cairo, Morocco shot for Cairo, sometimes Spain shot for Cairo.

This really angers us. I remember seeing ‘Wonder Woman 1984’ and there was a big sequence in Egypt and it was a disgrace for us.