From Heated Rivalry to heated tutelage.
Heated Rivalry creator Jacob Tierney will bring a new series about Alexander the Great to Netflix, per Deadline. The show, Alexander, is based on Annabel Lyon’s 2009 novel The Golden Mean and will follow the Greek king-to-be’s tutelage under philosopher Aristotle.
Per the show’s logline, “The Athenian empire is crumbling and the world’s greatest mind, Aristotle, arrives in Macedonia to tutor a volatile young prince, Alexander. Amid palace intrigue, forbidden love, brutal war and ruthless ambitions, their unlikely friendship shapes an empire and alters the course of history.”’
In a statement, Tierney said that seeing the Lyon’s novel realized is a longtime dream come true. “I fell in love with Annabel Lyon’s book The Golden Mean years ago and have been dreaming of telling this story ever since,” Tierney said in a statement.
According to Jimmy Howe, the head of scripted series for the U.S. and Canada at Netflix, the show “reimagines the classic power struggle between mentor and protégé with a raw, modern energy that feels both epic and incredibly intimate.”
If you’re counting at home, that’s the second Netflix series in recent memory about the Hellenistic ruler, who created one of the largest empires in ancient history. The 2024 show about him, Alexander: The Making of a God raised conservative eyebrows when it featured a kiss between him and one of his generals, Hephaestion, early in the show, despite the depiction being most likely a historically accurate portrayal of Alexander’s queerness.
“Hephaistion was the man whom Alexander loved, and for the rest of their lives their relationship remained as intimate as it is now irrecoverable: Alexander was only defeated once, the Cynic philosophers said long after his death, and that was by Hephaistion’s thighs,” writes historian Robin Lane Fox in his 1973 biography Alexander the Great.
Alexander the Great was even taunted with anti-gay language during his time, as classicist Harry Tanner wrote in Literary Hub earlier this year.
“Demosthenes belittled Alexander the Great in private, calling him a ‘pais,’” Tanner wrote. “The term ‘boy,’ as we have seen, is often used for gay lovers in the ancient world. As well as describing Alexander as a ‘boy,’ Demosthenes also referred to Alexander as ‘Margites,’ the protagonist of an ancient burlesque poem, meaning ‘lustful man.’ It is far from certain, but Demosthenes’ private references to Alexander imply that this most extraordinary general was a lascivious queer.”
Tierney will write and direct Alexander, just as he did Heated Rivalry, per Deadline. The show does not currently have a prospective release date, but those who are yearning for Heated Rivalry season 2 will have their desires satiated in April 2027.
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