Netflix scored big right at the top of 2021 with their original series Lupin, high-octane French thriller, and left subscribers the world over clamoring for more by presenting the first five hour-long episodes as merely the first part of the titular gentleman thief’s saga of vengeance. As January wound to a close, Netflix announced that the next five episodes of Lupin would arrive on the platform sometime during the summer of 2021, as reported by TV Line. On March 5, fans of the show got a sample of what they could expect from Part Two via the first teaser trailer. Sneak a peek at the fully subtitled French-language teaser below:
Part One concluded with the abduction of Raoul (rising star Etan Simon), the son of master thief Assane Diop A.K.A. Lupin (Omar Sy, Chocolat), by Leonard (Adama Niane, Gang of the Caribbean), an assassin in the employ of Hubert Pellegrini (Hervé Pierre, The Sense of Wonder). Assane’s thirst for revenge against Pellegrini for the wrongful imprisonment of his late father Babakar (Fargass Assandé, The Eye of the Storm) has therefore endangered the members of his existing family. In order to rescue his son, Assane must place himself in the line of fire in Part Two, TV Line reports.
Lupin proved itself to be a ratings colossus for the internationally known streamer in the weeks immediately following its January debut. According to TV Line, Netflix was able to predict that over 69 million households across the globe would watch at least two minutes of Lupin in its first four weeks on the site, which would make the drama the platform’s number-one foreign-language television property. Only one other program has surpassed Lupin‘s projected stats to date: “The Witcher has reached more households, with 76 million as reported by Netflix. Immediately trailing Lupin, meanwhile, are Money Heist, Tiger King, Bridgerton and The Queen’s Gambit,” via TV Line. Of those programs, the only foreign-language offering is the Spanish series Money Heist, which, like Lupin, blends blockbuster action sequences with a story centered around a criminal element.
The worldwide success of Lupin has also allegedly revitalized interest in the original classic stories by Maurice Leblanc (The Three Eyes) starring the eponymous escape artist after whom Assane models himself, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Arséne Lupin first appeared in the pages of the magazine Je Sais Tout in 1905, where he embarked on serialized adventures that abounded with mystery and intrigue, as reported by Crime Reads. The roguish character was reportedly written as French response to Sherlock Holmes and quickly made himself at home in the annals of European pop culture, appearing in nearly forty novellas, seven full-length novels, several stage plays and over a dozen feature films throughout the years, according to Crime Reads. A 2004 film titled Arséne Lupin actually featured Romain Duris (Our Struggles) in the title role. Duris and Sy would eventually appear alongside one another in the 2013 film Mood Indigo.
Lupin Part Two comes to Netflix in summer 2021. Part One is available to stream now.