When it was reported that Netflix had attached Denzel Washington to play the ancient Carthaginian general Hannibal in an untitled epic drama, directed by Antoine Fuqua, I kind of saw backlash incoming. I wrote:
I do wonder how Tunisians will react to this news — Hannibal is the stuff of legend in that country, widely revered as a national hero in the Arab nation.
Well, lo and behold, Denzel’s casting is now sparking controversy in Tunisia. French newspaper Courrier International is writing of complaints in Tunisian media about depicting the Carthaginian general as a Black African. The backlash has travelled all the way to Tunisian parliament (via Variety).
Here’s a member of Parliament, Yassine Mami, pointing out that Hannibal, who was born in 247 BC in Carthage was of West Asian Semitic origin:
There is a risk of falsifying history: we need to take position on this subject.
Tunisian newspaper La Presse also published an editorial in which it objected to Hannibal’s upcoming depiction as a “Black African” and described it as a “grave historical error.”
Will Netflix care? The film is being written by John Logan (“Gladiator,” “The Aviator,” “Sweeney Todd,” “Skyfall”) and it doesn’t hurt that Washington is one of the great living actors.
However, this revisionist casting is reminiscent of another controversy which had, in a Netflix docudrama, Cleopatra played by a black woman. Egypt lost their minds over this casting. The same reaction is now happening in Tunisia.
Fuqua’s film, set to be his sixth project with Washington, will follow the pivotal battles Hannibal led against the Roman Empire during the Second Punic War (218-201 B.C.).
No details were given as to when production would begin on the film. It still seems to be in the early development stages. Fuqua is also currently shooting his Michael Jackson biopic “Man in the Mirror.”