In the grand scheme of things, Netflix doesn’t court controversy all that often, but when it does the results tend to be fairly awe-inspiring. Even though Queen Cleopatra is nothing more than a documentary series focusing on one of history’s most famous figures, it caused an international uproar.
The reasons why so many people were up in arms over the Egyptian ruler being depicted as a dark-skinned dramatizations was always to be expected as an unfortunate byproduct of the world we live in, but the country really took things to heart. Not only did the nation demand that Queen Cleopatra be banned on the service, but there were even calls made for the entire streaming service to be yanked from the hands of subscribers across the entire length and breadth of Egypt.
As well as failed attempts at litigation, a state-affiliated broadcaster decided to take matters into its own hands by creating a Cleopatra docuseries of its own that would tell the exact same story, with the notable caveat that the Egyptian-backed episodic original would utilize a light-skinned actress out of nothing but sheer spite.
Ignoring the furor to have erupted in one isolated territory, the rest of the platform’s customer base doesn’t seem to have any issues at all with Queen Cleopatra, seeing as it’s crashed right onto the Top 10 most-watched list in 80 countries around the world to debut as the second top-viewed episodic original on Netflix’s worldwide charts, per FlixPatrol.
The contentiousness and headline-grabbing fury may have played a part, but it’s still a solid reminder that an isolated incident can’t tank an entire production all on its lonesome.