(Paris) It’s a record for a French series: Lupin, worn by French actor Omar Sy on Netflix, is about to be watched by nearly 70 million homes around the world, according to a projection made by the American broadcasting platform and made public on Tuesday.
By February 5 – 28 days after its release – 70 million households should have watched the series, according to Netflix, more than the surprise card of the fall, The lady’s game (The Queen’s Gambit), a miniseries brilliantly retracing the journey of a chess prodigy, seen by 62 million people.
“70 million is crazy! So proud that Lupin is THE first French Netflix series to meet such international success! Without you, this would not have been possible. Thank you to all, ”enthusiastic actor Omar Sy on his Twitter account.
Produced by Gaumont and composed of ten episodes, the series Lupin ranked number 1 in around ten countries, including Brazil, Vietnam, Argentina and Spain.
It is made up of ten episodes, of which the first five, of about forty minutes, are currently available. Three are made by the French Louis Leterrier (Elusive) and two by the Chilean Marcela Said (Mariana).
The series is designed as “family entertainment” and “unifier”, at a time “when everyone tends to isolate themselves in their room with their headphones to watch their own series”, according to the British screenwriter George Kay (Criminal, Killing Eve), at the helm of Lupine with Frenchman François Uzan (Family Business).
Sign of the scale of the phenomenon, the book by Maurice Leblanc, the “father” of Arsène Lupine, is at the top of sales on the French site of the Amazon group.
However, the popular French actor does not portray the hero invented by Maurice Leblanc in 1905, a burglar gentleman in a top hat and monocle.
“Lupine, ideal toy”
In this adaptation of the XXIe century, he is Assane Diop, an admirer of Arsène Lupine, haunted by an injustice that struck his family and who, in today’s Paris, acts by systematically referring to his hero.
Using false identities (maintenance agent, bicycle delivery man, computer technician …), sleight of hand, theft of jewelry …, he is inspired by Lupine to deceive the rich and avenge his father, who died 25 years earlier after being charged with a crime he did not commit.
“For an actor, Lupine is the ideal toy. He plays other characters himself. And it allows you to play a whole lot of things: it is in the drama, but also light, funny, seductive or in action. There is also a part of mystery in him ”, recently commented Omar Sy for the newspaper. 20 minutes.
In this same interview, the black actor, questioned about the low number of actors from minorities in France, also said he hoped that Lupin or “herald of change in the right direction” in this area.
Waiting, Lupin has been called a “magnificent concoction” by the Globe and Mail while the Chicago Tribune praised Sy’s “Bond-ienne elegance”, and her “understated charisma”.
Netflix has stepped up its production of original content in France in recent years, which has not always been well received by critics. The latter had thus laminated Marseille, his first French series with Gérard Depardieu in 2016.
