The first thing we notice? There’s no Sola Sobowale. You were surely thinking it too.
To Kill a Monkey is Kemi Adetiba’s first project outside the King of Boys franchise under her production company. This 8-part series sees her credited as creator, director, writer, and showrunner.
According to the filmmaker, she’s exploring something truly different here, marking her first step away from The Wedding Party and King of Boys, and her first time not working with her trusted muse Sola Sobowale, who has starred in all her major projects till now.
Taking centre stage this time are two male leads in Bucci Franklin (The Weekend, Rattlesnake, Far From Home) and William Benson (Crime and Justice Lagos, A Green Fever, The Fire and the Moth) in a crime drama rooted in a friendship reunion.
The trailer introduces us to a down-on-his-luck Efemini (William Benson), who seeks help from his larger-than-life friend (Bucci Franklin). The visuals tease the impoverished life of Benson’s Efemini as he is pushed to his wit’s end, the supernatural world, a fast life of wealth and a sudden turn of events where the stakes get higher.
After a chance meeting with an old friend, “Efemini is forced by circumstance to suppress his principles and explore a life of cybercrime, and finds himself making ever-greater moral compromises to stay ahead of the consequences of his new choices…and broadening tastes”.
Carrying echoes and themes of films like Living in Bondage and Billionaire’s Club, what path will this new lifestyle lead him on? How will it affect his relationships and family? What must he sacrifice to keep up with the demands of this criminal world? And how much is too much when his worlds collide?
Filling out the rest of the cast of To Kill a Monkey are Stella Damasus, Bimbo Akintola, Michael Ejoor, Chidi Mokeme, Lilian Afegbai, Ireti Doyle, Teniola Aladese and Sunshine Roseman.
Produced by Kemi and Remi Adetiba under the Kemi Adetiba Visuals banner, the project was first announced in August 2023 during its then-ongoing production, with principal photography wrapped up in October 2023.
To Kill a Monkey premieres on Netflix on July 18.
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