Netflix has announced that it will resume showing the popular political comedy starring Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, which served as a strange springboard for his real-life election campaign, which resulted in him becoming the leader of the country.
In Servant of the People, Zelensky plays a schoolteacher whose rant about political corruption goes viral and catapults him to the Mariinsky Palace, and the former actor later follows a strangely similar path to the presidency.
On Wednesday, amid a surge in worldwide interest in the leader opposing Vladimir Putin’s incursion, Netflix announced it was resuming the series.
“You asked, and he returned!” Netflix tweeted.
Servant of the People is back on Netflix in the US.
“In the 2015 satirical comedy series, Volodymyr Zelenskiy plays a teacher who unexpectedly becomes president after a video complaining about corruption suddenly goes viral.”
Previously shown – in the original in Russian, with English subtitles – from 2016-21.
The former actor was recently praised for his tough response to Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.
His unlikely rise to the presidency of Ukraine and a world wartime hero began with a presidency that many in Ukraine considered a joke.
He was seen as a dark horse for most of the 2019 election campaign, but he began to outpace his rivals as Ukrainians sought to voice their displeasure at what they saw as corruption at the highest levels of the country’s government.
Zelenskiy, a seasoned lawyer, raised funds for his campaign and quickly became a social media star.
He ended up winning the presidential election by a landslide with 74 percent of the vote, and his local and global approval ratings skyrocketed because of his handling of Putin’s invasion.
Before Putin declared war on Ukraine, Zelensky’s most notable moment on the world stage was his central role in the Democrats’ first attempt to impeach former President Donald Trump.
Trump called Zelensky in July 2019 to urge him to send his accusers against Joe Biden’s son Hunter, who served on the board of Ukrainian gas company Burisma despite apparently having little relevant experience in the field. business.
Trump has been accused of threatening to withhold arms funding for Ukraine to help it defend itself against Putin unless an investigation into Hunter Biden is launched. He was later cleared of wrongdoing charges during a 2020 hearing. A year later, Trump fought off another impeachment due to accusations that he provoked the January 6 riots.
He was also cheered for refusing to evacuate Kyiv despite allegations that the Kremlin sent several hit men to try and kill him.
Servant of the People ran from November 2015 for three seasons to March 2019 — only to end when Zelensky had to stop filming in the final weeks of his successful election campaign.
He was elected in April 2019 by a landslide, beating incumbent President Petro Poroshenko by 74 percent to his 24 percent.
Zelensky will play Vasily Goloborodko, a school teacher turned president, in the popular TV series Servant of the People.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy addresses members of Congress in Washington on Wednesday. The TV series that launched his presidential campaign is now returning to Netflix.
Zelenskiy, 44, has made full use of his communications and social media talents as president. On February 25, the day after the Russian invasion, he shoots a video for social media in which he reassures Ukrainians that he did not flee.
The three-season series and its 2016 follow-up film are licensed by Swedish broadcaster Eccho Rights, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Buyers include Netflix in the US, UK Channel 4, MBC in the Middle East, ANT 1 in Greece and PRO TV.
“The series is a comedy, but also an important document about Zelensky’s origins,” said Eccho managing partner Nikola Söderlund.
“His fictional president is a normal person who grows into his role as a heroic and adored leader.
“While the real-life scenario faced by the Zelensky and Ukrainian people is much darker and more gruesome than the show’s comedy, there are obvious parallels to the real situation, and Servant of the People is a fascinating, important, and historical piece of television.
Servant of the People, a satirical comedy in which Volodymyr Zelensky accidentally becomes president of Ukraine, will be streaming on Netflix
The show was first broadcast in the UK on Sunday night and drew 100,000 viewers.
Zelensky displayed his TV and timing prowess to the fullest throughout the war in Ukraine, frequently filming updates—sometimes from the presidential palace, sometimes from a mobile phone outside—and posting them on social media.
His communication skills make it insanely difficult for Putin to resist him.
Zelensky was widely known in Russia for his show, which was broadcast throughout the Russian-speaking world.
He was well liked, and the fact that Russian is his mother tongue made it difficult to portray him as an anti-Russian outsider.
Zelensky, in the series, rides a corrupt politician on a roller coaster to win him over.
The actor-turned-politician will appear on May 20, 2019 as president-elect.
He deftly switched from Russian to Ukrainian in a video posted on social media, calling on Russian troops in their native language to lay down their arms and stop fighting against their brothers, then switching to Ukrainian to address his people, many of whom also speak Russian.
Zelensky played a divorced school history teacher Vasily Goloborodko.
It is shown how Goloborodko and his family assume the presidency in awe – stunned by the extravagance and shocked by the luxury of the presidential palace.
Zelensky is pictured with Prime Minister Denys Shmygal on Monday at a meeting with a delegation that included Czech Prime Minister Piotr Fiala, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, leader of Poland’s ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party Jarosław Kaczynski and Prime Minister Slovenian Minister Janez Jansa. in Kyiv
Zelenskiy was spotted on February 17, a week before the invasion, visiting troops in the Donetsk border area.
The series was filmed at the former country residence of Viktor Yanukovych, who was ousted in February 2014 amid widespread fury over government corruption.
The Mezhyhirya estate included a galleon floating on an artificial waterway, imitating Greek ruins, a golf course, and a private zoo with ostriches and deer.
It became a symbol of the corruption of the Putin-backed Ukrainian government and has since been turned into a museum.
Volodymyr Zelensky: The path from a comedian and actor to a hero of the Ukrainian war
Volodymyr Zelenskiy has become an unlikely hero around the world for courageously resisting Vladimir Putin’s all-out invasion.
The Ukrainian president has been applauded for his courage to stay in Kyiv to help his troops fend off a wave of Russian attacks.
And the 44-year-old won a legion of fans with his charisma as the public was moved by his video messages to foreign powers.
But five years ago, the most talked about leader in the world was just an actor and comedian (with a law degree) who voiced Paddington and starred in the Ukrainian version of Dancing with the Stars.
Zelensky celebrates his election to the presidency – in real life – at his campaign headquarters on April 21, 2019.
Zelensky was born in Krivoy Rog, a large city in central Ukraine, 420 kilometers south of Kyiv, to a Jewish family.
His father was a professor and computer scientist at a local university, and his mother was an engineer.
The family spent four years in Mongolia’s second city of Erdenet when Zelensky was a child before returning to Ukraine.
He was going to move to Israel to study after passing the exams, but his father refused to let him go, instead sending him to study law at the Krivoy Rog Institute of Economics.
At the age of 17, he started doing comedy, joined the Russian show KVN and won the Highest League of KVN in 1997.
He then toured the former Soviet countries, including Russia.
Zelensky is pictured in December 2019 in Paris with Emmanuel Macron and Putin.
By this point, he had married screenwriter Elena Zelenskaya, with whom he had two children. He moved into film and television and starred in Love and the City, sequels, and Office Romance: Our Time.
But he has been showing interest in politics since 2014, when Ukraine’s Ministry of Culture proposed banning Russian artists from entering the country.
In 2015, he played the country’s president in the TV series Servant of the People, which also speaks out against corruption in the leadership.
Zelensky visits Ukrainian military forward positions in Donbass, Ukraine, December 2021
Like his character in Servant of the People, he ran an anti-corruption campaign and defeated the pro-Russian incumbent with 74 percent of the vote.
Poroshenko lost to the TV star in all regions of the country, including in the west, where he has traditionally enjoyed strong support.
It was an outstanding result for a campaign that resonated with voters frustrated by poverty, corruption and five years of war.
At his campaign headquarters, when the exit polls came out, Zelenskiy said, “I will never let you down.”
“So far, formally, I am not the president yet, but as a citizen of Ukraine I can say to all post-Soviet countries: “Look at us! Everything is possible!’