He goes further and further back into history: When the advertising machine for Ridley Scott’s “Gladiator Part 2” starts this year, many will be looking particularly excitedly at Denzel Washington. Washington plays an arms dealer who has a gladiator past and his own troop of gladiators, a fascinatingly inscrutable character. And now another ancient epic is to follow; Netflix has announced a film about Hannibal, the legendary general from Carthage and enemy of Rome – with Washington in the leading role.
For an actor who is as internationally loved and respected as Washington, the reaction was initially harsh: “They are trying to steal our identity,” it was said in Tunisia – ancient Carthage was near today’s Tunis, and Hannibal is an important national figure for Tunisians. No pictorial representations of Hannibal have survived, but what is certain is that he was of Phoenician descent, so he may have looked like the population of today’s Lebanon and Syria. The election of Denzel Washington is seen by parts of the Tunisian public as a symbol of Western falsification of history – he looks too African to them.
The excitement has now died down and too little is known about the project. Hannibal was the colorful figure in the Second Punic War, between 218 and 201 BC, which brought the Roman Empire to the brink of defeat, as described by Polybius and Livy. His march from Spain over the Alps to Italy with dozens of fighting elephants is a historical feat par excellence… and has been told many times on film, although always with white Hannibals.
This is not the first debate about the correct skin color of an actor
Questions of ethnic origin and diversity in casting have repeatedly led to large and sometimes ugly debates in recent years, see “Star Wars” or “Ghostbusters”. Tunisia is an exception only in that the issue reached parliament, where Culture Minister Hayet Ketat Guermazi was asked to take action against the casting of the roles. However, Guermazi seems to respect artistic freedom and would rather work to ensure that at least filming takes place in Tunisia. The country has already provided filming locations for several “Star Wars” films, but also for “The English Patient”.
Discussions about historically accurate skin tone aside, Netflix has chosen a man with massive star potential in 69-year-old Denzel Washington, who is roughly twice as old as Hannibal was at the time of his march across the Alps. At this age, around thirty, he played in the hospital series “St. Elsewhere” for six years. His rise in Hollywood began when Spike Lee cast him as civil rights fighter Malcolm X in 1992. Since then he has been nominated for the Oscar countless times, winning twice: in 1998 as best supporting actor in “Glory”, he played a stubborn civil war soldier; In 2002 he won Best Actor in “Training Day,” where he was a corrupt cop in Los Angeles. This was his first collaboration with Antoine Fuqua, who is set to direct Hannibal. Fuqua also directed the three “Equalizer” films, in which Washington established himself as an athletic but sensitive action star.
Denzel Washington, who has also directed several times himself, has not yet commented on his vision of a black Hannibal, but he probably doesn’t have to. In 2021 he played – whose identity was stolen? – Macbeth in an acclaimed film adaptation. And since Daniel Craig no longer shows any desire to continue playing James Bond, there has been discussion as to whether the next Bond could possibly be black. Of course the name Denzel Washington came up.