Who is Layla in ‘Moon Knight’?

Layla El-Faouly is a new entry into the world of Marvel and her introduction in Moon Knight should be exciting to fans. She’s brave, intelligent, and can hold her own against Egyptian gods and Marc Spector —and she’s a character many are going to look up to for years to come.

Played by May Calamawy in the series, Layla is an incredibly fascinating character. Layla comes to us in the form of a phone call first, trying to find where Marc is, and slowly we learn that he has hidden his DID from her and tried to protect her from whatever is going on with Khonshu without telling Layla anything. And to her credit, she doesn’t care what Marc thinks is best for her. She’s going to do what she needs to in order to finish what they started together.

Layla’s origins are purposely a mystery but we do know that she’s going back to Egypt and is having an Egyptian passport made. And she clearly met Marc in Egypt because the two talk about their wedding there. Hopefully we’ll learn a lot more about Layla in the episodes we’ve yet to see.

**Spoilers for the first four episodes of Moon Knight lie ahead**

Layla El-Faouly is a woman who met Marc and the two were married and living in London before he seems to have vanished from their life together without explaining to her why. She clearly knows about him being the avatar for Khonshu because she brings up the suit he wears, but she doesn’t know the full extent of what powers Marc has with his connection to Khonshu.

Not only is she connected to Marc Spector, she’s also someone who is so smart and strong that she’s not bogged down in the drama of what Harrow is trying to do until he finally tells her the truth about her father and his connection with Marc. Layla’s her father’s daughter in the sense that she, like him, wanted to explore and Harrow used the truth about her father’s death against her and Marc. All it really did was force Marc’s hand into telling her the truth, in the same way that Steven’s admission of Khonshu’s threats to Marc about Layla did.

Moon Knight needs Layla

Without Layla, Moon Knight would have worked fine, but she’s the something extra that really brings the entire series to a whole new level. Marc has a grounded purpose in trying to protect her while Steven is actively working against Marc because of his own feelings for Layla and while Khonshu and Harrow are both using her against Marc, it isn’t in a way that makes her less than or a victim in any way.

She’s in control of her own story and even when Marc tries to shield her from what’s happening, she finds out anyway and does what she thinks is best. Layla, to me, is incredibly fascinating, and I hope the show continues to explore her in the two episodes we have left because there’s still so much about her we don’t know and I want to see how her relationship to Marc, Steven, and the show grows.

(image: Marvel Entertainment)