Draft:Layla El-Faouly

Layla Abdallah El-Faouly is a fictional character portrayed by May Calamawy in the Disney+ Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) miniseries Moon Knight, loosely based on the Marvel Comics character Marlene Alraune. Introduced as the wife of Marc Spector, El-Faouly becomes the Scarlet Scarab as the avatar of Taweret. El-Faouly works with Spector and his alter ego Steven Grant to defeat the Egyptian goddess Ammit and her avatar Arthur Harrow.

She appeared in the 2022 Disney+ miniseries Moon Knight and is best known for being the first Egyptian heroine in the MCU.

Concept, casting and creation
Director, Mohamed Diab's wife Sarah Goher messaged Egyptian-Palestinian actress May Calamawy on social media to convince her to audition for the then-upcoming Moon Knight series as she had included Calamawy in her and Diab's pitch presentation for the series. In 2021, Calamawy was eventually cast to play the "key role" of Layla El-Faouly. Initially, fans thought she would be based off Layla Miller / Butterfly due to having the same name; however the theory was just a coincidence.

While El-Faouly had not appeared in the comics at the time of the series release in 2022, the creation of her character derived from Marlene Alraune who was the daughter of archeologist Peter Alraune (who was murdered by Raoul Bushman) and Marc Spector's wife in the comics. Additionally, her last name derived from the superheroes who donned the Scarlet Scarab mantle in the comics, Abdul Faoul and his son Mehemet.

Characterization
El-Faouly appeared in Moon Knight (2022) as an archeologist, and was described as an "adventurer caught up in the chaos and danger of Marc Spector's life". Calamawy described her character as someone with "a lot of healing to do" and "step[s] into herself more" to "develop more confidence and trust in herself" through supporting Spector. Calamawy also called El-Faouly a "street fighter" noting that she wanted her stunts to reflect that by having them be reactionary and not choreographed or clean. Her powers include "superhuman strength, durability, and super-fast flying". Additionally, Calamawy drew inspiration from Middle Eastern women, who "have a very unassuming, soft strength to them" as opposed to Western actresses, such as Angelina Jolie who portrayed Lara Croft. El-Faouly's curly hair style has also been the subject of several tweets, "highlighting the appearance of a heroine whose physique is not drawn from typical Caucasian features".

The creators of the show found it important to ensure that El-Faouly had "proper racial representation" with director Mohamed Diab noting that initially she was "half-Egyptian, but they pushed harder for her to be an Egyptian character, and Marvel loved the idea". Additionally, head writer and executive producer Jeremy Slater noted that El-Faouly (originally named Zayna Faoul) was created as a replacement for Marlene Alraune "due to the writers' desire for the character to be Egyptian".

Original comic derivations
In the mainstream Marvel comics, the original Scarlet Scarab was first introduced as Abdul Faoul in The Invaders #23 (1977) and was created by Roy Thomas, Archie Goodwin and Frank Robbins. Abdul became the protector of Egypt after he gained superhuman powers from the Ruby Scarab, a scarab-shaped relic — which has some similarities to the Scarab of Ammit in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. In the MCU, Abdul appears as Abdallah El-Faouly, father of Layla El-Faouly. Layla initially garnered some comparisons to Abdul's son, Mehemet Faoul, who was the second wielder of the Ruby Scarab and ultimately defeated by Thor in Thor #326.

While Layla El-Faouly is an original character to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, she is a composite character who was loosely based off the Scarlet Scarab and the concept of Marlene Alraune, who was an archaeologist and Moon Knight's lover. The story of Alraune's father, archaeologist Dr. Peter Alraune, was also interconnected with Abdul Faoul's story to create Abdallah El-Faouly.

Early Life
Layla El-Faouly was born to renowned archaeologist Abdallah El-Faouly. She became an archaeologist herself, selling stolen artifacts back to their rightful owners. After her father was murdered during an attack at a dig site in Egypt, she became acquainted with mercenary Marc Spector. Sometime later she became aware of his service as the Moon Knight to Egyptian god Khonshu. The two also searched for the Scarab of Ammit — which leads its user to Ammit's ushabti.

Marriage to Marc Spector
El-Faouly and Spector fell in love and married but eventually, Spector told El-Faouly he wanted a divorce and disappeared from her life by ignoring all her phone calls and messages. Unbeknownst to El-Faouly, Spector had developed dissociative identity disorder (DID) as a result of child abuse at the hands of his mother and survivor's guilt following his younger brother's death. From the trauma, Spector developed an alter-ego named Steven Grant who could assume general dominance over Spector's body. After his mother's Shiva, Spector allowed Grant to take full control. Grant, unaware of his status as an alter to his host, relocated to London, England and began working as a gift shop assistant at the British Museum.

Meeting Steven Grant
Grant later becomes aware of Spector's existence and answers Spector's hidden phone with which El-Faouly answers and tracks him down. She introduces herself to Grant as Spector's wife and is shocked to find out that Spector found the Scarab of Ammit and takes it off Grant. After Grant is kidnapped by policemen secretly working for religious zealot Arthur Harrow, El-Faouly follows them to Harrow's hideout. She reveals herself to them, saying she has the Scarab and helps Grant escape. Angrily, Harrow sends two jackal monsters after them. While Spector/Grant kill the jackals, El-Faouly watches as Harrow claims the Scarab himself.

Finding Ammit's tomb
El-Faouly tracks Spector/Grant to Cairo, Egypt to find that he is looking for the sarcophagus of medjay Senfu who was tasked with recording the secret location of Ammit's ushabti. El-Faouly takes him to meet an old Madripoor acquaintance of hers, Anton Mogart, who owns the sarcophagus. The meeting goes awry when Harrow arrives and destroys the sarcophagus, forcing Spector, Grant and El-Faouly to fight off Mogart's men and escape into the desert. Using Khonshu's power to turn back the night sky to resemble the stars from two thousand years ago, Grant assembles a set of fragments from the sarcophagus to create a map to the location of Ammit's ushabti. While Khonshu is imprisoned in an ushabti by the other Egyptian gods for interfering with the world, El-Faouly defends Spector/Grant's unconscious body from Harrow's men, eventually killing them all.

El-Faouly drives Grant to the location of Ammit's ushabti where they find Harrow and his disciple's deserted camp site outside the lost tomb of Alexander the Great. While scouting the site and preparing entry, El-Faouly bonds with Grant and kisses him, much to Spector's shock. She and Grant descend into the tomb which is a maze in the shape of the Eye of Horus. After finding some of Harrow's men who had died, they realise that they were killed by undead Egyptian Heka priests. El-Faouly defeats the priests but not before being separated from Grant. El-Faouly encounters Harrow who claims that her Spector was one of the mercenaries who murdered her father. She confronts Spector who reveals that his partner had killed her father and shot Spector after which he became Moon Knight. Spector tells El-Faouly to leave but she hides behind a column in the tomb and hears Spector get shot by Harrow, much to her dismay.

Becoming the Scarlet Scarab
Once Harrow and his men left, El-Faouly takes the Scarab of Ammit for herself to track them down. Disguising herself as one of Harrow's disciples, she plans to kill him in revenge for Spector. El-Faouly is stopped by the Egyptian goddess Taweret who possesses a dead man's body and tells her that Harrow is too powerful to stop alione and that she must free Khonshu from his ushabti to revive Spector. El-Faouly reluctantly agrees and follows Harrow and his cult into the Great Pyramid of Giza and enters the Chamber of the Gods where El-Faouly searches for Khonshu's ushabti. After finding it, she releases him and declines becoming his avatar.

El-Faouly recovers Selim, the avatar of Osiris, who tells El-Faouly that they need more avatar if they are to stop Ammit and Harrow. Calling out to Taweret for help, El-Faouly is offered to become her avatar. She accepts and becomes the Scarlet Scarab, donning wings, two swords and a golden suit. El-Faouly uses her new powers to fly herself to Cairo and aids Spector/Grant in their fight against Arthur Harrow and his followers. She watches in shock as Harrow is defeated by Spector's secret third alter ego, Jake Lockley. She later helps Spector seal Ammit in Harrow's body through a ritual.

Reception
Upon making her debut, El-Faouly's character has received critical acclaim. Manuel Betancourt wrote in a review for The A.V. Club that the introduction of El-Faouly made the cast stronger, citing the cast as the biggest strength of the series. IGN's Matt Fowler compared her to Lara Croft and that she reminded them of an Indiana Jones type-character. She has been called one of Marvel's best original characters, being compared to Hope van Dyne and Xu Xialing. Middle East Eye writer Umar Farooq praised Calamawy's role not being "limited to playing sidekick to Spector" but rather "carries an intriguing backstory in itself, which slowly unravels as the series progresses".

Legacy
El-Faouly as the Scarlet Scarab in Moon Knight finale made her the first Egyptian superheroine on screen for Disney and Marvel Studios. May Calamawy noted that she hopes "that all Arab women can watch that and feel like a superhero, and that they have that space on that big scale". Al Jazeera writer Ahmed Twaij found that after the 9/11 attacks, Islamophobia began to rise within Western culture with negative Arab and Muslim stereotypes pushed by the media. However he called El-Faouly in Moon Knight "a welcome change, adding that "we will soon start to see many more positive Arab and Muslim characters in Western movies and TV shows" and compared her to the female fighters during the Rojava–Islamist conflict.

After her introduction in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, El-Faouly made her comic debut in 2023 as the new Scarlet Scarab in the Moon Knight Vol. 9 #25 (September 2023), written by Jed MacKay. Writer Jed MacKay noted that "adding an already beloved character into the universe of the comics is a really interesting opportunity". On her comic appearance, FanSided writer Mark Lynch noted that "no one should be shocked", going on to say that El-Faouly was "one of the best parts" of Moon Knight.