Showtime Orders Antoine Fuqua’s Shaka: King of the Zulu Nation

Showtime has placed a series order for Shaka: King of the Zulu Nation, executive produced and directed by Antoine Fuqua (Training Day), and a pilot order for the elevated genre series Let the Right One In.

Shaka: King of the Zulu Nation is an epic drama centered on one man’s personal journey from stigmatized childhood to warrior king. Rooted in actual events, it tells the story of the Zulu Empire chief Shaka and his unlikely rise to power.

“This project offers a gateway to our past that is so critical to our global history and yet so often marginalized,” said Fuqua. “Through Shaka: King of the Zulu Nation, we hope to bring this saga to life, all the tears, sweat and blood, all the joy and sorrow, all the intimacy and intensity and humanity. In short, we’re going to rock the world with this one.”

Inspired by the original hit Swedish novel and film, Let the Right One In centers on a father and his 12-year-old daughter whose lives were changed forever ten years earlier when she was turned into a vampire. Locked in at age 12, perhaps forever, Eleanor lives a closed-in life, able to go out only at night, while her father does his best to provide her with the minimal amount of human blood she needs to stay alive.

Oscar nominee Demián Bichir (A Better Life) stars. Award-winning playwright, writer and producer Andrew Hinderaker (Away, Penny Dreadful) will serve as showrunner and executive produce along with Seith Mann (Homeland, #FreeRayShawn, Blindspotting), who will also direct the pilot.

“The series is both a love letter to the original film and a story entirely our own,” said Hinderaker. “And casting a true artist like Demián epitomizes our bold aspiration to be one of the most terrifying shows on TV, and one of the most moving.”