King of Boys was arguably one of the biggest Nollywood movies in 2018. Its sequel, King of Boys: The Return of King is set to be this year’s it movie. The 7-part limited Netflix series premiered on Friday the 27th of August and had a very impressive opening weekend, topping the ‘Top 10 in Nigeria’ list on Netflix with the first movie running a close second. Directed by Kemi Adetiba and falling under the Crime/Political Thriller genre, The Return of the King cast is filled with heavy hitters in the Nollywood industry; Sola Sobowale, Toni Tones, Richard Mofe-Damijo, Akin Lewis and Nse Ikpe-Etim. Rappers Illbliss and Reminisce also play pivotal characters in the series.
The Return of the King takes place five years after the first movie ended, with Eniola Salami returning to Nigeria cleared of all charges raised against her. Despite losing both her children and her freedom, Alhaja Salami decides not to go for revenge but instead run for governor of Lagos state instead. The series follows her journey as a gubernatorial aspirant and how the choice she made to ignore her underground dealings in favor of focusing on her race to be governor, affects her.
Overall, The Return of the King lived up to its hype, the acting was superb, with the main character portrayed by Sola Sobowale and Toni Tones playing their part to perfection. When Eniola Salami was going through turmoil at the crisis caused by her inability to hold her focus on both her law-abiding life and her law-breaking endeavours, you could see the emotions running through Sola Sobowale’s face. Most of the time, the camera was on her face and the subtle changes in her eyes even when her mouth was smiling is the mark of a phenomenal actress.
I particularly loved the camera work; the angles, the zooming effect. The camera moves to capture each aspect of each actor’s part and it draws you into your screen, mesmerized. One of my favorite scenes is one where two characters are talking in an office and one drops his cigarette in his ash tray but doesn’t put it out, and the smoke just keeps curling in the air. The effect it has on the scene is subtle but absolutely beautiful.
Costume work for the series was top notch. Everybody slayed and going a little deeper, the outfits they wore either acted as foreshadowing to what was going to happen in that scene or it showed the state of mind the character.
I’m of the opinion that each person fits the role they were cast for. Most of them didn’t just act the role; they became their character. It was there in their expressions, in their little gestures, they were fully immersed in the person they were playing. Nobody did this better than Sola Sobowale and Reminisce, they took up space even when the camera wasn’t focused on them. There are some places with certain actors that the acting with could have been better, but it’s made up for in the overall scheme.
There are certain scenes however, aren’t necessarily accurate. The differences between what is portrayed in said scenes and what usually goes on isn’t noticeable to people who aren’t familiar with what those scenes are trying to show.
If you asked me what The Return of the King taught me, I’d tell you the only thing I got from it was that you were supposed to kill your enemies as soon as you had the chance. But seeing as that’s not a feasible life lesson, I’d say the entire series shows the dual nature of people; nobody’s fully good even if they appear so, and no one is fully evil.
The Return of the King coming as a limited series was a calculated risk. There was the possibility that there’d be filler scenes that people would feel didn’t have any relevance to the main plot but everything fits in nicely. That’s my favorite thing about it, it’s a web of interconnected stories that all end up as a present with tightly wrapped with a bow on it. And like most Marvel movies, the post credit scene sets the stage for the possibility of a next movie, fingers crossed.
The Return of the King takes you into a world where Nigeria is still as bad as it is in the real world, where the players are political and underground figures moving the chess pieces across the board. It exposes the underbelly of the pristine Lagos, and shows its insides. There are no heroes in this series, nobody that is inherently good, each character is flawed, with good intentions but underhanded techniques to achieve them. It doesn’t matter that there are no heroes anyways, you’d stay rooting for the villains.
Rating: 8/10.
