Outside of those who’ve diligently followed the saga since the very beginning, it might be a shock for many to discover there’s an ongoing comic book franchise that predates Bryan Singer’s X-Men and is still churning out new installments on a semi-regular basis, although Netflix subscribers have proven themselves fully aware of Asterix & Obelix: The Middle Kingdom‘s existence.
Per FlixPatrol, the fifth entry in the live-action series has cracked the streaming service’s global Top 10 after conquering a top spot in 24 countries across the globe, which has established it as the eighth most-watched feature film on the entire platform on a worldwide basis. Which is just as well, seeing as it flopped in theaters after failing to recoup its hefty $72 million budget.
There’s been some recastings along the way, with Christian Clavier and Gérard Depardieu initially taking on the two title roles, whereas The Middle Kingdom features Guillaume Canet and Gilles Lellouche as Asterix and Obelix. There’s also been a recurring habit for bizarre and unexpected cameos, with the fifth chapter neatly filling that remit by roping in both Academy Award winner Marion Cotillard and soccer icon Zlatan Ibrahimovic for some reason.
Largely inoffensive and frivolous family-friendly adventures that aren’t exactly designed to capture imagination on Marvel or DC levels, that doesn’t make it any less impressive that an entire spate of comic book adaptations have quietly kept trundling along since Asterix and Obelix vs. Caesar hit the big screen in 1999, especially when you consider that Batman and Spider-Man have both been rebooted three times since then.