WATCH: Cleopatra depicted as black in new Jada Pinkett Smith docuseries
Luke Gentile
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Netflix announced that Hollywood star and activist Jada Pinkett Smith’s docuseries on Cleopatra is set to stream on May 10 with the historically racially ambiguous queen depicted as black.
Cleopatra’s race and ethnicity have been argued through the years by historians, with many coming to the conclusion that she was primarily of Macedonian Greek descent.
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“As Egypt’s last pharaoh, Cleopatra fights to protect her throne, family and legacy in this docuseries featuring reenactments and expert interviews,” a description of Queen Cleopatra reads on Netflix.
The series will follow Cleopatra’s journey as she rules Egypt and maneuvers through relationships with Roman leaders, including Julius Caesar and Mark Antony, according to the trailer.
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“From Executive Producer @jadapsmith comes a new docuseries exploring the lives of iconic African queens,” Strong Black Lead, a global Netflix sub-brand, tweeted. “QUEEN CLEOPATRA follows the story of Cleopatra, one of the world’s most famous and misunderstood woman. QUEEN CLEOPATRA is available to stream May 10 only on Netflix.”
Pinkett Smith’s project will depict Cleopatra as black, though the true ethnicity of the iconic ruler remains hotly debated.
The trailer addresses the dispute with a diverse panel of experts, and it appears the docuseries will dedicate time and effort to it.
“It’s possible that she was an Egyptian,” one person said.
Another said that “I imagine her to have curly hair like me and a similar skin color.”
“I remember my grandmother saying to me, ‘I don’t care what they tell you in school. Cleopatra was black,'” a final commentator said.
Cleopatra’s true racial background has been debated for years, but Pinkett Smith appears to have been committed to representing her as black.
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“This particular project went through many different machinations, but it started with Willow. … I really wanted to represent Black women,” she said in a February interview.
“We don’t often get to see or hear stories about Black queens, and that was really important for me, as well as for my daughter, and just for my community to be able to know those stories because there are tons of them! The sad part is that we don’t have ready access to these historical women who were so powerful and were the backbones of African nations,” she said.