“Moon Knight” producer Grant Curtis says the series is more powerful, typical of Marvel cameras.

[This story contains spoilers for Moon Knight.]

Sam rhymes Spider man The films paved the way for the Marvel cinematic world, and Marvel Studios President Kevin Feig hasn’t forgotten his roots.

Feige, who helped produce Spider man A trilogy for then-Marvel boss Avi Arad didn’t just hire Raim to direct the just-released film Dr. Strange in many worlds of madnessBut he also brought in Rhyme producer Grant Curtis. moon knight for life. May 3 is the 20th anniversary. Spider manCurtis relished the chance to reminisce about the film that brought the three creatives so far.

“It was a series of Unity Day parades and I had the honor of meeting Stan Lee in the parking lot and taking him to the first one. Spider man To place. There was a clean smile on her face and a holy wonder. “It was something I will never forget,” Curtis said. the hollywood reporter press today to moon knightFinal.

Curtis also looks back on the critically acclaimed fifth episode of the Disney+ series moon knight, who created something special from his first draft in the Writers’ Room. “I once saw an Oscar on set [street] “The scene was a lump in my throat that hasn’t gone away since they got to that level,” Curtis said.

In that last conversation THRCurtis also discussed the benefits of having virtually no MCU connections, as well as his recent attendance at a creative meeting at Marvel Studios to plan the next 10 years of storytelling.

So, did you attend the creative meeting at Marvel Studios that Kevin Feig mentioned at CinemaCon?

He was in retreat, yes. It was fascinating and enlightening and there are many other words for it. There were holy jinn there and I was not among them. With a lot of talent at Marvel Studios, Kevin leads with Lucy [D’Esposito] and victory [Alonso]. But the presence of a fly on the wall was humiliating enough.

You’ve been working on Sam Rhyme movies for at least 15 years, where you probably met Kevin. Is it just a coincidence that you and Rhyme joined the MCU at the same time?

It is and is a wonderful coincidence. I was lucky and lucky to join the team at Marvel Studios and obviously Sam came in as director. Doctor Strange 2. I just love that boy. So I can’t wait to see what will be brought to the table. Doctor WeirdBut I know it’s amazing. So this is all very good.

So I know that Marvel Studios has walked away from long-term deals with actors, which is part of why Oscar isn’t loyal beyond anything. moon knight. But can we expect him to reprise those roles at some point?

As you can imagine, I can’t talk about all these commercial issues, but I can say that Oscar delivers as convincing a performance as Mark Spector, Stephen Grant and Jake Lockley. Audiences are so emotionally involved in the journey that the Oscars will take us and I hope that journey continues. The big question for Kevin is where this character might or might not land, but when we leave Moon Knight at the end of this series, the character has the potential to flow beautifully into many parts of the Marvel cinematic world. And if Oscar hadn’t been driven by the quality of what he did and hadn’t created such an engaging and organic performance, we probably wouldn’t have said this. We would say, “Yes, maybe”, you know? But no, we say, “I can’t wait to see if this happens” and that’s a confirmation of the actor working at the forefront of his craft.

Throughout the season, there were hints of Jake Lockley’s presence and you finally revealed him in the post-credits scene. What was the conversation around this election?

Our lead writer, the amazing Jeremy Slater, was in charge of how we should walk away from this series, and what I mean is, we’re going to finish this series. So that’s one of the things that Jeremy discovered early on, and as soon as we heard it, it was, ‘Oh, this is amazing.’ A lot of the real question was how to portray Jake Lockley from the start, but without exposing the character to the public to too great a degree. But Jeremy deftly put it all together and it was the perfect way to end the series.

Leila, of course, became the MCU’s first Egyptian superhero. How did this character develop throughout the process?

In the Writers’ Room, this female character has been a major hero since day one. He’s always been Egyptian and forgive me I forgot his other nationality in the writers’ room earlier. But after we got on board with the great May Kalamawi and Mohammed Diab, an Egyptian, that character became Leila El-Faul’s character that you see on screen to this day, and she clearly became a beetle. When in episode six the rock crumbles and the MCU’s first Egyptian superhero steps forward, I rejoice, and that’s because May is a wonderful actress and Mohammed is an amazing director.

I liked the fact that there were no major connections, crossovers or appearances in the MCU, but I also know that most of the MCU audience is hungry for it. Have you thought about you and your team not to confuse the itch that the public has?

Well, if you look closely, yeah Any Connection wires. In the third episode, Madripuri and other little Easter eggs are mentioned here and there. Because Kevin, Lum and Victoria have created such an amazing world here with such amazing characters, places and stories, Instinct is playing with all these toys and trying to get as many as they can and bring them out. moon knight. But this world is mostly about characters, and it’s about looking for characters first. And after Jeremy and I went to the writers’ room and started compiling it with other amazing writers, we realized that the best and most compelling journey of Mark Spector, Stephen Grant and Jake Lockle, all the other connecting points. That we thought we needed and wanted would start to fade. And once we added Arthur Harrow, played by the great Ethan Hawke, and the aforementioned Leila El-Faul, played by May, we realized that no further connection points were needed.

So unless you’ve seen another Marvel Cinematic World offering and this was your first deep dive, it’s actually pretty ridiculous to tell a story where you have the same close-up emotional investment as the person who saw it all. there is a 100 percent disconnection. Although we didn’t plan from the beginning, in the end it was a plus that forces the trip moon knight Much richer.

Did you previously notice that you had something special in the fifth episode?

I made. Oscar Isaac is not only the star of our show, but also one of the executive producers, so he would always point to the fifth episode and say, “This is what we have to win. That’s what we need to get right. “This is a place where it all ends emotionally.” So when I looked in the papers and saw the scene where Mark Spector comes out of his childhood home and cries on his knees as he thinks about his childhood and what brought him to this particular stage in his life. , That’s when I knew. But I also knew we had something special as soon as I saw this page. Becky Kirsch and Matt Orton wrote the fifth episode, so I knew we were cooking on gas. And I once saw Oscar on set during that scene, he had a tumor in his throat that hadn’t gone away at the time because he’d taken it to that level.

20th anniversary Spider man It was earlier this week and you were the co-producer on this movie. Is it a random memory I remember?

Yes absolutely. And this is not so casual. Spider man One, we were in Downey. It was a sequel to the Unity Day parade and I was honored to meet Stan Lee in the parking lot and bring him in first. Spider man To place. There was a clean smile on her face and a holy wonder. That was something I honestly won’t forget.

The interview is edited for length and clarity.

moon knight Now available on Disney+.