The Leopard TV Series: First Teaser Trailer of Netflix Series Starring Deva Cassel Revealed
The Leopard TV Series: Everyone was waiting for it and it’s here: in the early afternoon of Tuesday 19 November, the first official teaser trailer for The Leopard (Il Gattopardo) was released, the six-episode Netflix series – produced by Indiana Production and Moonage Pictures – which will arrive on the platform in 2025, just over 60 years after Luchino Visconti‘s cinematic masterpiece brings Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa‘s novel of the same name (first published in 1958) back to life, an epic, surprising and sensual tale set in Sicily during the riots of 1860.
Netflix has unveiled the first teaser trailer for The Leopard, the new series on the streaming platform inspired by the iconic novel by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa, one of the most beautiful Italian books of all time. It is one of the most anticipated titles of next year, ready to conquer everyone with an intense story that deals with universal themes such as power, love, and the cost of progress. This great classic of Italian literature is about to arrive on Netflix, but what should we expect? Who is in the cast and when will the series debut? Let’s find out together.
This new version for the small screens of the digital on-demand will be one of the flagship titles of the Netflix catalog and will see two couples of actors and actresses much loved by the public at work: Kim Rossi Stuart and Saul Nanni (who together in 2022 also starred in the film Brado, directed by Kim himself), and Deva Cassel and Benedetta Porcaroli. They will be directed by three directors: Tom Shankland (episodes 1-2-3-6), Giuseppe Capotondi (episode 4), and Laura Luchetti (episode 5).
The Leopard TV Series: The Plot
Based on one of the greatest Italian novels of all time, The Leopard is an epic, surprising, and sensual tale set in Sicily during the riots of 1860. At the heart of the series is Don Fabrizio Corbera, the unforgettable Prince of Salina, who lives a life filled with beauty and privilege. However the Sicilian aristocracy feels threatened by Italian unification, and Fabrizio realizes that the future of his house and his family is in danger. To avoid succumbing, Fabrizio will be forced to make new alliances, even if this means going against his principles until he finds himself faced with a choice that seems impossible. Don Fabrizio will have the power to organize a marriage that would save the future of his family, that of the rich and beautiful Angelica and his nephew Tancredi, but, in doing so, he would break the heart of his beloved daughter Concetta.
Who’s in the Cast of The Leopard?
The cast will center around: Kim Rossi Stuart as Don Fabrizio Corbera, the Prince of Salina (played by Burt Lancaster in the film); Saul Nanni as the charming Tancredi (played by Alain Delon in the film); Deva Cassel, the daughter of Vincent and Monica Bellucci, will become Angelica (inheriting the role from Claudia Cardinale); finally Benedetta Porcaroli will be Concetta (and, acting as the spokesperson for a proto-feminist message of fighting patriarchy, she will have a much larger role than the role played at the time by Lucilla Morlacchi).
The Leopard: The First Images of the Netflix Series
When is The Leopard coming out on Netflix?
The Leopard comes out on Netflix in 2025.
The Leopard the Themes Covered
Remaining faithful to the novel, the episodic version of The Leopard will follow Prince Fabrizio, a keen and disenchanted observer of the progressive and inevitable decadence of the aristocracy and the growing influence of the bourgeoisie. With the backdrop of Garibaldi’s Expedition of the Thousand and the decline of Bourbon domination, Sicily, destined to be annexed to the Kingdom of Sardinia, will find itself faced with a completely new social and cultural framework. In this phase of transition, the famous manifesto phrase that Tancredi addresses to his uncle, the Prince of Salina, resonates: “If we want everything to remain as it is, everything must change”.
The series will explore several narrative lines, as stated by Tinny Andreatta, vice president for Italian content at Netflix: “At first glance, it is a drama that tells, as the Prince of Salina says, the universal condition of those who belong to “an unfortunate generation, between the old times and the new, and who find themselves uncomfortable in both ”, however, it is also the intimate story that binds the great patriarch of this family and his beloved daughter. A current story despite having been written almost 70 years ago. In the soul of this work, there is an extraordinary humanity and universality, a specific and authentic identity that, precisely because it is unique, can reach everyone.
With the Series, Giuseppe Tomasi Di Lampedusa’s Novel Comes Back to Life!
With this new blockbuster, one of the most important novels of the twentieth century comes back to life, an epic tale and an intimate saga at the same time, set in the opulent beauty of Sicily in the second half of the nineteenth century, among baroque palaces and the contrasting colors of land burned by the sun. The pages of the book will not be distorted by the series: “Ours is, in a certain sense, a path of safeguarding the literary work – Fabrizio Donvito, Partner & Founder of Indiana Production, wanted to underline -. We start from the book, characters and themes treated by the writer can be exalted in a long-term story. There is much that is explicit but also allusive in Tomasi di Lampedusa’s masterpiece, which makes it the most formidable resource for a transposition. We hope to produce something that is intrinsically Italian with an international appeal. This is a story for everyone and we want to reach a truly global audience”.
Against the backdrop of the 1860 uprisings and on the threshold of the Unification of Italy – when the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies was invaded by the Piedmontese and Garibaldi’s men – both in the novel and in the film the naive but passionate libertarian fervor of the young Tancredi is contrasted with the lucid disenchantment of the Prince of Salina, aware that everything will have to change to remain essentially unchanged. Sicily becomes almost a place of the soul and an immaterial protagonist of the plot, a powerful historical fresco of an era that is ending and a new era that is coming to life. Power, love, and progress are intertwined in this new social order. Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa’s novel won the Strega Prize in 1959, and Luchino Visconti’s film of the same name won numerous cinematographic awards, including the Palme d’Or at the 1963 Cannes Film Festival.
Translating such work into an audiovisual product will not be easy: “And I want to underline the pride and responsibility with which we face this test – added Tinny Andreatta -, a challenge that looks with respect at a great text mixing international excellence with Italian excellence”.
Where Was the Series Filmed?
All six episodes of the series will obviously be shot in Sicily, starting from Trapani, where the first clapperboard was shot. Since it is a costume store, the production effort will be up to expectations: “There are several environments to reconstruct with philological care. For this reason, we have three different types of consultants: a religious one, a historical one, and one from the label who worked closely with the scriptwriters. We have five tailors who are making the original costumes, a crew of 250 people“.
The wonderful Palazzo Valguarnera Gangi, a masterpiece of the Baroque not only in Sicily, hosted as is known the famous waltz scene danced by Burt Lancaster and Claudia Cardinale. This, in the series, will be replicated in the Palazzo Comitini, also in Palermo. As many as 2,500 extras, exclusively Sicilian, have been mobilized to take part in the Netflix miniseries. All the other scenes are filmed in the Sicilian capital, which will certainly receive a notable return on the image, and the filming, which will last over four months, will also take place in Syracuse, Catania, and Licata. Some scenes are, however, set and filmed in Rome.
The Leopard: What to Expect
Will it be able to convey the sumptuous yet decadent atmospheres of an era that was about to give way to another? Will the series be able to convey the historical fresco and introspection of the Sicilian soul? We all hope so. The work is an international production, naturally with a marked Italian presence. The miniseries is written by Richard Warlow, who is also the creator and executive producer, together with Benji Walters, and is produced by Indiana Production and Moonage Pictures: Fabrizio Donvito, Daniel Campos Pavoncelli, Marco Cohen, and Benedetto Habib for Indiana Production and by Will Gould, Frith Tiplady and Matthew Read for Moonage Pictures. In the words of Tinny Andreatta, vice president for Italian content at Netflix: “At first glance it is a drama that tells, as the Prince of Salina says, the universal condition of those who belong to an unfortunate generation, between the old times and the new, and who find themselves uncomfortable in both, however, it is also the intimate story that binds the great patriarch of this family and his beloved daughter”. The direction is entrusted to Tom Shankland, Giuseppe Capotondi and Laura Luchetti, who will “share” the episodes.
