Omar Sy Instagram – Repost from @businessweek • ● NEW COVER: Our annual heist issue, featuring Lupin and the art of the steal. This is how Omar Sy’s hit Netflix show became an international phenomenon.⁣ ⁣ ● Lupin, which premiered in January, was watched by 76 million households in its first four weeks, making it the second-most-successful debut ever for an original Netflix show, after only Bridgerton. Following a global publicity campaign, it returned on June 11 with five new episodes in which Assane Diop uses everything from wardrobe changes to martial arts mastery to elude his adversaries as they close in on him. The reviews of Lupin Part 2 have been laudatory, even if critics caution viewers not to overthink the show, and a third installment is on the way.⁣ ⁣ ● Like many heist films and shows, Lupin frequently requires a willful suspension of disbelief—and then some. But just as Sy’s character constantly diverts people’s attention from his larcenous doings with his ploys, the audience is beguiled by the chic Parisian sets, haute production, and riveting orchestral soundtrack. Then there’s Sy, whose presence makes even the most incroyable moments worth watching. “His smile lets him—how do you say it in English?—get away with murder,” says Ludovic Bernard, who directed two new Lupin episodes.⁣ ⁣ ● Lupin arrived just in time for Netflix. Last year, as the pandemic settled over the world, it added a remarkable 37 million new subscribers, bringing its total to 204 million. But in April the company revealed it had added only 4 million more in the first quarter of 2021, 2 million shy of its own projections. Netflix shares tumbled 11% in after-hours trading that day. Still, the company had something it could use to divert investors’ attention: a hit show from, of all places, France.⁣ ⁣ ● Photographer: @djeneba.aduayom⁣ ⁣ ● Grooming: @barbaraguillaume / Forward Artists Los Angeles, California