France’s beloved comedian e book heroes Asterix and Obelix are set for his or her newest incarnation in a Netflix mini-series being launched Wednesday, hoping to win over new followers, notably within the United States and Asia.
The plucky Gallic rebels, created by illustrator Albert Uderzo and author Rene Goscinny in 1959, have an enormous following because of the unique comedian books which have bought round 400 million copies.
A collection of big-budget French movies — the newest in 2023 took them to China in “Asterix & Obelix: The Middle Kingdom” — has additionally helped increase their attain.
But warrior Asterix and his highly effective however dim-witted sidekick Obelix are but to beat viewers within the United States and Britain, which have their very own comedian e book and animated hero characters from Marvel, Disney and different stables.
“Often unfortunately in these markets the Asterix films tend to be released in arthouse cinemas,” stated Celeste Surugue, head of the Editions Albert Rene publishing firm that owns the rights to the unique comics.
Although the tales of Roman-era journey have a following in Australia and New Zealand, Asia additionally stays a worldwide weak spot for the potion-swigging Gallic underdogs.
“The strength of a streaming platform is that access to viewers isn’t limited by distribution,” Surugue stated.
Netflix is about to launch the brand new five-part animated mini-series primarily based on the 1966 e book “Asterix and the Big Fight” in 190 international locations, with 38 totally different language variations together with Mandarin, Korean and Arabic.
It is directed by Alain Chabat, 23 years after his success with the “Asterix & Obelix: Mission Cleopatra” movie starring Gerard Depardieu and Monica Bellucci, which stays one of many best-selling movies in France of all time.
Netflix has previous kind with Asterix, having experimented with streaming rights for “The Middle Kingdom” movie in 2023, which featured French A-listers Marion Cotillard and Vincent Cassel however suffered from usually poor opinions.
The platform has additionally helped convey different French productions to a worldwide viewers, overcoming the standard aversion of English audio system to subtitles with hit reveals reminiscent of “Lupin” and “Call My Agent”.
While creating the dubbing for the brand new Asterix collection, it was in a position to depend on the 120 totally different translations of the unique French comics in addition to the foreign-language variations of the earlier movies.
“They’ve done a great job,” Surugue stated.
“Asterix and the Big Fight” is about within the 12 months 50 BC with Asterix and Obelix’s indomitable village nonetheless the final Gallic holdout in opposition to Roman occupation.
The duo oversee the resistance, together with a combat between their chief Vitalstatistix and an area Roman-backed rival, whereas fighting the lack of the recipe for the magic potion that provides the villagers their super-human power.
“I always liked ‘The Big Fight’ for the dynamic with the Gallo-Romans. Here, there are truly invaders, resistance fighters and collaborators,” director Chabat advised reporters in March.
The forty first Asterix album, “Asterix in Lusitania”, shall be launched in October in 18 languages and is about in Portugal.
© 2025 AFP