Moon Knight Director Mohamed Diab Pitched A Wild Twist Ending To Kevin Feige

This article contains spoilers for "Moon Knight" season 1.

Did the events of "Moon Knight" season 1 take place entirely in the mind of Marc Spector/Steven Grant /Jake Lockley or not? That's the question the season finale raised in its last scene, taking us back to Marc/Steven discussing the nature of reality with Dr. Harrow in his office. You could probably make a solid argument for either case, based on what we were shown in previous episodes. But in the end, what matters is Marc/Steven choose to live in harmony with one another in what they believe to be the real world, rather than allowing others (like Harrow) to define their existence for them.

In that sense, season 1 has more in common thematically with a film like "Inception" than any other Marvel Cinematic Universe project to date (even if the season finale was mostly your typical MCU ending, i.e. one long action scene). That was by design, too, as director Mohamed Diab — who helmed all but episodes 2 and 4 of "Moon Knight" — told Variety, when asked if the show gives a "definitive" answer to how much of season 1 took place in Marc/Steven's mind:

"My answer is this is a show that needs to be watched once and twice and three times. There's so many clues. It's not clear what's real and what's not. For example, we saw his brother drawing a fish. So if this is the reality, then how come that Steven had a fish with one fin, too? What inspired what? It's a loop. And I think a lot of clues are like that."

Perhaps the biggest "clue" that "Moon Knight" is completely imagined by its unreliable hero is the lack of connections to any other characters or events in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The season 1 finale reaffirms superheroes are a thing people are aware of on the show, with a young girl asking the Scarlet Scarab (a transformed Layla El-Faouly) if she's an Egyptian superhero at one point. But does that mean costumed vigilantes exist in more than just the pages of comic books in this world?

As it turns out, Mohamed Diab initially pitched a pretty wild twist ending to Marvel Studios boss Kevin Feige, touching on that very matter:

"I always wanted it to be open. This is funny: I always told Kevin Feige, I want to have an ending when we discover the whole MCU is in [Marc/Steven's] head. So it's an open question."

Obviously, these questions could soon be moot, should Marvel announce "Moon Knight" season 2 or the title character's return in a new MCU project (which the season 1 finale's post-credits scene certainly hints at). But in the meantime, it's fun to have a corner of this ever-growing franchise that favors ambiguity and invites a rewatch (or two or more, as Diab would prefer) over immediately shifting its attention to what comes next.

"Moon Knight" season 1 is now streaming on Disney+.