Egyptian experts want her Cleopatra series banned
When the trailer for the docudrama series Queen Cleopatra, with Adele James in the lead, dropped, it caused outrage in Egypt. Variety reported in April 2023 that Egyptian academics claimed Cleopatra was of European descent and not Black.
Zahi Hawass, a prominent Egyptologist, was quoted by the al-Masry al-Youm newspaper as strongly disputing the possibility that Cleopatra was of mixed race. "This is completely fake. Cleopatra was Greek, meaning that she was light-skinned, not Black.”
An Egyptian lawyer filed a complaint demanding that legal measures be taken to block Netflix from airing the series in Egypt citing the docudrama violates the country's media laws.
Hard to argue. I’d think Egyptian scholars would know more about Cleo’s heritage than producer Jada Pinkett Smith or anyone else involved in that fanfic fantasy series.