Popular Nollywood performer Kunle Afolayan has disclosed that the international streaming service Netflix wants him to make an Anikulapo television series.
In an interview with the Guardian UK today, the award-winning director stated as much, adding that he was confident “Anikulapo,” the picture he had been working on for six years, will be a box office success.
On September 30, 2022, “Anikulapo,” a Netflix original movie set in the ancient Oyo kingdom of the seventeenth century, had its premiere. A week later, with a total of 8.7 million streaming hours, it had surpassed all other non-English movies on the service.
In “Anikulapo,” Kunle Afolayan, who starred his daughter Eyiyemi Afolayan, 17, said that he originally intended to make it into a series, but Netflix persuaded him to first make it a feature film. If the film was successful, he could then turn it into a series.
“I’ve been working on Aníkúlápó for six years. Originally, I wanted to make a series, but I shopped it and kept telling people that this movie would be bigger than Game of Thrones,” Afolayan said.
“Eventually, Netflix told me to make a movie first since I believed in the project that much, and if it became a success, we’d develop a series.
“Right now, Netflix is the one urging me to start making the series. I knew we made a great film and that it’d start conversations, but I didn’t know it’d do as well as it has done,” he added.