Netflix‘s smash hit heist series “Lupin” is back bigger and bolder after three years, and its French star Omar Sy, who plays French gentleman thief Assane Diop, has something to do with it. Sy, who served as artistic producer on previous installments, makes his debut as co-showrunner alongside Louis Leterrier for the show’s fourth part, on top of co-producing it through their joint banner Carrousel Studios. Speaking in an interview with Variety ahead of the Oct. 23 launch, Sy revealed he made greater creative control a condition of his return on the show.
So my condition for continuing was that I would have a little more say in the decisions. They gave me that role, and it allowed me to change things,” Sy said during the zoom interview, sitting against a red backdrop of “Lupin” featuring an animated silhouette of Diop and the Eiffel Tower. The new season picks up four years after the events of Part 3, with Assane behind bars before finding himself targeted by a mysterious copycat who pulls off a string of elaborate heists in his name.
With a bigger budget from Netflix, Sy and Leterrier leaned further into the show’s superhero-like qualities, expanding its universe beyond the novels of Maurice Leblanc and weaving some futuristic elements. We brought it more into our own universe,” said Sy. We’re embracing modernity, whether it’s through the prison itself or all the technology that the copycat uses to trap Assane.” The challenge, Sy says, was to preserve what made “Lupin” a global hit while making the new season feel fresh enough to draw in viewers who have never watched the series.
The new role also allowed Sy to bring in rising French actor Théo Christine and explore more emotional side of Assane’s story, Sy, who’s currently shooting Bradley Cooper’s Ocean prequel alongside Margot Robbie, has carved out a career in Hollywood and in European cinema, often serving as a producer on projects exploring social and political issues. He starred in and produced Mathieu Vadepied’s “Father & Soldier,” which shed light on the largely overlooked history of Senegalese soldiers who fought for France during WWI. His upcoming French projects include Ladj Ly’s “Dumas: Diable Noir” (“Black Dumas”), which reunites him with Christine and tells the story of Thomas-Alexandre Dumas, the formerly enslaved man who became France’s first Black general and whose son would go on to become one of the country’s most celebrated writers.
Slated for release in October 2027, “Black Dumas” will arrive just months after France’s presidential election, which is shaping up to be one of the country’s most divisive in decades, with the far right leading polls and political tensions running high. I just hope they can be calm, thoughtful conversations rather than heated ones.” While he had broken through with his first leading role in the French comedy “Intouchables,” it’s his part as Assane Diop in “Lupin” which turned Sy into an international star in 2021. Like “Emily in Paris,” “Lupin” has contributed to boosting tourism in the French capital, and has been hugely successful internationally on Netflix, although the latter has even more merit, being in French.You’re co-showrunner on this season.
What made you want to get more involved creatively, and how did that change the way you worked on the series? The truth is, I’ve been involved in the same way from the very beginning. My involvement hasn’t changed.
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