Netflix Orders First African Original, Spy Dramedy ‘Queen Sono’

Netflix is continuing to broaden its slate of international fare with an order for its first African original series, Queen Sono.

Queen Sono is a dramedy series that will star Quantico‘s Pearl Thusi — who is South African — as a secret agent balancing crimefighting with a fraught personal life, Variety reports. It will premiere on the platform globally in 2019.

Thusi tweeted a video about the news today, saying that Queen Sono is “going to change the game for every artist on this continent.” She added, “Thank you to Netflix for believing in this idea. I cannot wait for every young woman, every woman on this continent, and actually this planet to meet Queen Sono. We’ve worked so hard on this and I cannot wait.”

Variety notes that Queen Sono has been announced just a week after Netflix’s VP of international originals, Erik Barmack

, said the platform planned to commission originals in Africa beginning 2019. Barmack told South African news outlet Independent Online that, with Queen Sono, “Taking talent like this and telling stories to the rest of the world puts [Thusi] in the same category as other strong female characters like Claire Underwood in House of Cards and Jessica Jones.”

He added that Netflix has plans for “deeper roots” in Africa and South Africa, “and we’re moving pretty quickly to that now, and plan to invest more in local content.”

Queen Sono was created by South African stand-up comedian and director Kagiso Lediga, who previously worked with Thusi on dark comedy Catching Feelings. Tamsin Andersson, who produced Catching Feelings, will executive produce.