In 1963 the dazzling Elizabeth Taylor played it Queen Cleopatra in the eponymous film by Joseph Mankiewicz, which received four Oscars, which is regularly shown on television to this day, usually on Easter days.

Taylor’s brunette beauty would later define the legendary queen’s cinematic image, leading to (for example) her role as Monica Belucci in the 2002 film Asterix & Obelix: Operation Cleopatra.

An international debate has been raging for days over the release of the trailer for a new dramatized Netflix docu-series called Queen Cleopatra. Cause; Actress Adele Jameswho will play the queen of Egypt, black.

The backlash was immediate, both on social media and from more official lips, such as the former Egyptian Minister of Antiquities, Zahi Hawass, who spoke of “falsification of facts.” The facts imply the Greek origin of Cleopatra, who is known to have been the last in the Ptolemaic line of succession, and it is historically unlikely that her racial characteristics were African.

However, the Netflix production, headed by Jada Pinkett Smith (Will Smith’s wife), seems poised to support just such a version. In fact, at one point in the trailer, we see one of the speakers mention, “My grandma used to say, ‘I don’t care what they teach you in school, Cleopatra was black,'” while another remarks, “I imagine she has curly hair.” like mine, and the same skin color.

It is also worth seeing how Cleopatra’s relationship with the Roman conquerors of Egypt will be portrayed. “There was a time when women ruled with incomparable power, as warriors, queens and mothers of nations.

The most iconic among them was Cleopatra,” the trailer begins. This is an image of… matriarchy at the beginning of the first millennium of our era. this is certainly interesting, although it has no historical significance.

Something that would be perfectly legal if it were fiction, as was the case with many impressive Hollywood narratives (Troy, 300, etc. It’s reasonable for the viewer to expect some historical documentation.

One way or another, the series will be released on May 10 on the platform and “if someone doesn’t like the casting, they won’t see it,” as the main character (correctly) pointed out in her account, after a flurry of negative messages. .