After years of murmurs and leaked on-set photos, Netflix rolled out the red carpet for the first time in Africa, to premiere Queen Sono on Friday.
The six-episode espionage drama is a creative effort led by Kagiso Lediga and Tebogo Malope, who shared the spoils of directing the series.
What is Queen Sono about?
Without dishing out any spoilers, Queen Sono is an action-packed tale about a clandestine agent from a fictional South African Special Operations Group (SOG) whose personal life meddles with a pursuit for the person who killed her anti-apartheid revolutionary mother, Safiya Sono, 25 years ago.
The full main cast includes:
- Pearl Thusi as Queen Sono, a field operative of the Special Operations Group (SOG);
- Vuyo Dabula as Shandu, an ex-SOG agent;
- Sechaba Morojele as Dr Sidwell Isaacs, Chief of the SOG;
- Chi Mhende as Miri, Director General of the SOG;
- Loyiso Madinga as Frederique Kazadi, a former hacker and lead field technician of the SOG;
- Rob Van Vuuren as Viljoen, a former SOG field agent;
- Kate Liquorish as Ekaterina Gromova, a high level security contractor and primary owner of the private military company Superior Solutions;
- Khathu Ramabulana as William, Queen’s childhood friend and therapist;
- Enhle Maphumulo as Nova, William’s girlfriend and a consultant at the World Bank;
- Abigail Kubeka as Mazet, Queen’s paternal grandmother;
- Connie Chiume as Nana, Miri’s mother and a key political advisor;
- Otto Nobela as Bulabule, one of Ekaterina’s mercenaries; and
- James Ngcobo as Deputy President Malunga, a prominent South African political figurehead.
Early reactions to the Netflix show
Social media has been abuzz after the show premiered on Netflix on Friday. As expected, people had mixed reactions on how the series was.
Sowetan’s Emmanuel Tjiya described the show as a stunt that “failed to take off”.
“While the scene raises expectations, it fails to take off. That’s the problem with Netflix’s first original series in Africa with Kagiso Lediga as show-runner; it gets in its own way too often,” Tjiya wrote.
These are some of the best reactions from social media:
