''Queen Sono'' is a South African

crime drama Crime films, in the broadest sense, is a film genre inspired by and analogous to the crime fiction literary genre. Films of this genre generally involve various aspects of crime and its detection. Stylistically, the genre may overlap and combin ...

streaming television Streaming television is the digital distribution of television content, such as TV shows, as streaming media delivered over the Internet. Streaming television stands in contrast to dedicated terrestrial television delivered by over-the-air a ...

series created by

Kagiso Lediga Kagiso Lediga (born 6 May 1978) is a South African Tswana comedian, actor, writer and director. He is the creator and executive producer of the Netflix crime drama ''Queen Sono'' which was released on 28 February 2020. Lediga has written and dir ...

that premiered on

Netflix Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a fi ...

on February 28, 2020. The series stars

Pearl Thusi Sithembile Xola Pearl Thusi (born 13 May 1988) is a South African actress, model, and presenter. She is known for her roles as Patricia Kopong in the BBC/ HBO comedy-drama series ''The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency'', Dayana Mampasi in the A ...

Vuyo Dabula Vuyo Dabula (born 11 September 1976) is a South African model, actor and bodybuilder. He is best known for his role as Shandu Magwaza in the Netflix crime drama, '' Queen Sono''. Early life He studied at P.H Moeketsi Agricultural High where he ...

, Sechaba Morojele, Chi Mhende, Loyiso Madinga, Rob van Vuuren, Kate Liquorish, Khathu Ramabulana, Enhle Maphumulo,

Abigail Kubeka Abigail Kubheka (born 7 December 1939) is a South African singer, songwriter and actress. On the SABC TV series '' Generations: The Legacy'', she plays the role of Zondiwe Mogale, the mother of Tau Mogale (Rapulana Seiphemo) and Tshidi Phakade ( ...

, Connie Chiume, Otto Nobela and James Ngcobo and features Mario Diederiks. It is

's first African original series. Upon release, it received positive reviews by critics, who praised the direction,

cinematography Cinematography (from ancient Greek κίνημα, ''kìnema'' "movement" and γράφειν, ''gràphein'' "to write") is the art of motion picture (and more recently, electronic video camera) photography. Cinematographers use a lens to foc ...

, action sequences and terformances, especially Thusi, Dabula and Kubeka, and referred to it as a "smashing good time." On April 28, 2020, Netflix renewed the series for a second season. However, on November 26, 2020, it was reported that Netflix had cancelled the series because of the production challenges brought on by the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

Synopsis

''Queen Sono'' follows the story of a secret

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the Atlantic Ocean, South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the ...

n clandestine agent who tackles criminal operations while dealing with crises in her personal life.

Cast and characters

Main

Queen Sono (

) A seasoned

field operative In espionage, a field agent is an agent who works in the field as opposed to one who operates at the office or headquarters. A field agent can work alone or in a group but usually has a case officer who is in charge. Field agents can be undercover ...

of the Special Operations Group (SOG) and daughter of Safiya Sono ( Lady Skollie), a deceased South African anti-apartheid revolutionary leader and

freedom fighter A resistance movement is an organized effort by some portion of the civil population of a country to withstand the legally established government or an occupying power and to disrupt civil order and stability. It may seek to achieve its objectives ...

. As a young orphan, Queen struggled to comprehend the mystery surrounding her mother's assassination case. Years later, she is recruited by the SOG, a South African intelligence agency. Determined to find the answers she seeks, she continues to investigate her family's past and uncover the identity of the true culprit responsible for her mother's death. Shandu Johnson Magwaza (

) An ex-SOG spy and the second-in-command for the Gromova crime family, led by Ekaterina Gromova. Shandu had a past relationship with Queen during their field days and before he left the agency. Dr. Sidwell Isaacs (Sechaba Morojele) As Chief Director of the SOG, Dr. Sidwell Isaacs heads the agency, with its mission statement being to protect the security and welfare of all African citizens across the continent, by thwarting any future threats that could undermine their country's independence and growth. Currently, his work relationship with Queen is quite fraught owing to a lack of trust, evident by his withholding of pertinent intel that would shed the light on the real truth surrounding Safiya's murder case. Miri Dube (Chi Mhende) As Director General of the SOG, Miri is a target-oriented, no-nonsense, and ambitious senior officer tasked with overseeing Queen's performance on the field during debriefings. Although she sympathizes with Queen's difficult past, she is often at odds with the agent due to their differing approaches to handling covert missions. Frederique Kazadi (Loyiso Madinga) A former

hacker A hacker is a person skilled in information technology who uses their technical knowledge to achieve a goal or overcome an obstacle, within a computerized system by non-standard means. Though the term ''hacker'' has become associated in popu ...

and current lead field

technician A technician is a worker in a field of technology who is proficient in the relevant skill and technique, with a relatively practical understanding of the theoretical principles. Specialisation The term technician covers many different speciali ...

for the SOG. Fred assists Queen with her missions by monitoring her location and providing tech support on fieldthe . Viljoen ( Rob van Vuuren) A former SOG field agent who later became an analyst after suffering a permanent impairment injury from a past covert operation. He is on friendly terms with Queen. Ekaterina Gromova (Kate Liquorish) A high level security contractor and primary owner of the

private military company A private military company (PMC) or private military and security company (PMSC) is a private company providing armed combat or security services for financial gain. PMCs refer to their personnel as "security contractors" or "private military ...

Superior Solutions, as well as a

Russian Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including: *Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...

heiress to the Gromova

crime family A crime family is a unit of an organized crime syndicate, particularly in Italian organized crime and especially in the Sicilian Mafia and Italian American Mafia, often operating within a specific geographic territory or a specific set of activ ...

. During her formative years, Ekaterine was never treated with respect by her family members. Often derided by her father, she was consistently pushed aside in favor of her brother Vitaly Gromova, who was later poised to take control of the Gromova empire. After her father's death, she plans to take charge of the family oligarch and exploit various opportunities to position Super Solutions as a leading military contractor within the African continent. William Chakela (Khathu Ramabulana) As the Queen's most trusted confidant, William also acts as her on-call

therapist Therapist is a person who offers any kinds of therapy A therapy or medical treatment (often abbreviated tx, Tx, or Tx) is the attempted remediation of a health problem, usually following a medical diagnosis. As a rule, each therapy has indi ...

. As a longtime

childhood friend Friendship is a relationship of mutual affection between people. It is a stronger form of interpersonal bond than an "acquaintance" or an "association", such as a classmate, neighbor, coworker, or colleague. In some cultures, the concept of ...

, he is one of the few people, she tries to protect and will listen to. Nova (Enhle Maphumulo) William's girlfriend, who works as a consultant at the

World Bank The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans and grants to the governments of low- and middle-income countries for the purpose of pursuing capital projects. The World Bank is the collective name for the Inte ...

. Mazet (

) She is Queen's paternal grandmother. Nana (Connie Chiume) Miri's mother, who is a prominent South African key political adv,sor. President Malunga (James Ngcobo) A South African politician, who was investigated for corruption in his earlier days as

Deputy President of South Africa The deputy president of South Africa is the deputy to the head of state and head of government of the Republic of South Africa and is a member of the National Assembly and the Cabinet. The deputy president is constitutionally required to "assis ...

. Bula Bule (Otto Nobela) A representative of the rebel group Watu Wema and one of Ekaterina's mercenaries. Hendrikus's Cousin With Beard (Mario Diederiks) A cousin of the murderer (Hendrikus) who assassinated Queen's mother - Safiya Sono

Episodes

Production

Development

On December 10, 2018, it was announced that

had given the production a series order for a six-episode first season. The series is created by

who is credited as an executive producer alongside Tamsin Andersson. Lediga and Tebogo Malope directed the entirety of the first season. Diprente Films was involved in the production of the series. The first season was released on February 28, 2020. On April 28, 2020, the series was renewed by Netflix for a second season. It was reported on November 26, 2020 that the show had been cancelled, the complications of the pandemic having led to cost increases and difficulty scheduling production.

Casting

Alongside the series order announcement, it was confirmed that

would star in the lead role. On June 11, 2019, it was announced

, Sechaba Morojele, Chi Mhende, Loyiso Madinga, Rob van Vuuren, Kate Liquorish, Khathu Ramabulana, Enhle Maphumulo,

, Connie Chiume, Otto Nobelaand James Ngcobo had joined the cast.

Filming

Principal photography Principal photography is the phase of producing a film or television show in which the bulk of shooting takes place, as distinct from the phases of pre-production and post-production. Personnel Besides the main film personnel, such as a ...

for the first season was originally scheduled to commence in April 2019. Filming for the first season took place on location in

Johannesburg Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu and xh, eGoli ), colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, or "The City of Gold", is the largest city in South Africa, classified as a megacity, and is one of the 100 largest urban areas in the world. According to Dem ...

Lagos Lagos (Nigerian English: ; ) is the largest city in Nigeria and the second most populous city in Africa, with a population of 15.4 million as of 2015 within the city proper. Lagos was the national capital of Nigeria until December 1991 fo ...

Nigeria Nigeria ( ), , ig, Naìjíríyà, yo, Nàìjíríà, pcm, Naijá , ff, Naajeeriya, kcg, Naijeriya officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf o ...

;

Kenya ) , national_anthem = " Ee Mungu Nguvu Yetu"() , image_map = , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Nairobi , coordinates = , largest_city = Nairobi ...

and

Zanzibar Zanzibar (; ; ) is an insular semi-autonomous province which united with Tanganyika in 1964 to form the United Republic of Tanzania. It is an archipelago in the Indian Ocean, off the coast of the mainland, and consists of many small islan ...

Tanzania Tanzania (; ), officially the United Republic of Tanzania ( sw, Jamhuri ya Muungano wa Tanzania), is a country in East Africa within the African Great Lakes region. It borders Uganda to the north; Kenya to the northeast; Comoro Islands ...

from June 2019 to August 2019.

Release

On December 10, 2019, an announcement

teaser trailer A teaser (or more specifically teaser trailer) is a mini- trailer and a form of teaser campaign advertising that focuses on film and television programming. It is a videography pre-release move or television show advertisement. Short in length, te ...

for the series was released by Netflix. On January 30, 2020, Netflix released the official trailer for the series.

Reception

The first season received positive reviews upon its release. The

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...

website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

reported a 91% approval rating with an average rating of 7/10 based on 11 reviews. The website's critical consensus reads, "''Queen Sono's'' twisty, taut thrills are matched with epic action sequences and soapy delights, making Netflix's first South African series a smashing good time."

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

, which uses a weighted average, assigned the first season a score of 70 out of 100 based on 5 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.

Notes

References

External links

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