What’s nine feet tall, gray, and has the best manicure this side of the Nile? That would be Taweret, Egyptian goddess of fertility and childbirth and the best new minor character in the MCU.
After nearly four full episodes of slightly ponderous mythology and a thrilling tomb-raiding mission right out of 1999 cinematic masterpiece The Mummy, Moon Knight takes a turn at the end of episode 4, “The Tomb”. Marc Spector (Oscar Isaac) and Steven Grant (also Oscar Isaac) — a tortured ex-mercenary/earthly avatar of moon god Khonshu and museum gift shop assistant/Egyptology nerd respectively — have been on a globe-hopping mission to thwart the powerful, deadly cult leader Arthur Harrow (Ethan Hawke) while also navigating the whole dual-personalities-in-one-body thing. The adventure into the depths of a hidden tomb ends badly when Harrow shoots Marc dead, and the dearly departed hero wakes up in a psychiatric facility where “Doctor” Harrow gently insists the entire adventure so far was all in his head. So far, so Legion. Reality is already a tricky enough concept when Marc escapes Harrow to find a very real Steven elsewhere in the hospital — and then in an empty white hallway, the two alters encounter an anthropomorphic hippopotamus in an ornate ceremonial getup who greets them with a bright, almost nervous “Hi!”
This is Taweret, as Steven eventually notes when he pulls himself together at the beginning of episode 5 (but not before screeching, hilariously, “Hippo!!!!”).
After the giddy whiplash of the episode’s fourth act, and an imposing entrance for the goddess, to have her twinkle her hippo-fingers (complete with lapis lazuli-blue nails) in greeting and chirp like Elle Woods on her first day at Harvard Law is a startlingly fun button on an episode that has already pulled the rug out from under the viewer twice.
Taweret is quickly revealed to be a warm, humane, and pragmatic guide to the particular afterlife Steven and Marc have found themselves in, delivering basic exposition about the Duat in between breaking the news of their own deaths to the guys and gushing over the beauty of the Ancestral Plane (as seen in Black Panther — one of Moon Knight‘s only explicit links to the wider MCU). Her chirpy, subtly posh English accent gives her a guileless, endearing quality reminiscent of Olivia Colman accepting an award or the best friend in a Richard Curtis romcom.
Taweret is played by Antonia Salib, both for the voice and motion-capture performance, and it’s hard to believe this is her first ever credited role. It was a smart choice by the show’s creative team to have Salib on set and in costume for filming; her physicality is both quietly funny and also wonderfully in sync with her line readings, and there’s a sense of rapport with both Isaacs that grounds the leaden CGI setting of the Duat and Field of Reeds. The very tone of her voice feels like it adds light and brightness to these often murky scenes.
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She has real gravitas in these scenes as she weighs their hearts and guides Marc and Steven through excavations of their memories. But when Layla Al-Faouly (May Calamawy), Marc’s wife and fellow adventurer, summons Taweret and agrees to temporarily be her avatar to help stop Harrow, the goddess shrieks like a drunk girl who’s just spotted her bestie across the bar, and it still works. Taweret speaks through not only her hippo form but also through Layla and, in one scene, the corpses of several of Harrow’s mooks. Every time, Salib’s performance adds electricity and humor to scenes that threaten to get lost in sandstorms of exposition and doom.
The deity we spend the most time with, Khonshu, is voiced by the inimitable F. Murray Abraham, all gravel and dismissive, godlike indifference to his avatars’ suffering; of the others we meet briefly, almost all have the straight-from-central-casting combination of vague local accent and solemn intonations you’d expect for a council of stern immortals. (The eventual personification of Ammit, the vengeful goddess worshipped by Harrow, is all the more disappointing for a forgettable voice performance.)
Taweret may be a boatman (boathippo?) on the seas of the afterlife, but she’s also a goddess of new life and fertility, and her bright, feminine presence is a strong creative choice against all the gloomy pronouncements of her cohort. Taweret feels more grounded in modernity than the others, and she designs the absolute heck out of Layla’s Scarlet Scarab costume to boot. (Seriously. Those sword-wings.)
You believe her when she says she was rooting for the boys, despite her brief pretence that the gods don’t play favourites. Even the way she gently checks in with Marc and Stephen about whether they really want to go back to Khonshu evokes the innate kindness and insight of a girl you meet in the club bathroom who instantly reads your discomfort in the way you talk about your ex. If I could get a pep talk from anyone in the MCU right now, I’d choose her in a heartbeat.
Moon Knight Season 2 is currently up in the air, but if the ever-expanding chaos of MCU continuity has taught us anything, it’s that you never quite know who’s going to show up where. While other fans game out which mutant and fantastic favorites might turn up in the next phase, I’ll be hoping for more sand cruises with Taweret.
All six episodes of Moon Knight Season 1 are now streaming on Disney+.
