Astérix & Obélix: The Big Fight. Image by Netflix

LILLE, France - More than 20 years after his success with "Asterix & Obelix: Mission Cleopatra", French director Alain Chabat has again teamed up with the plucky Gauls for a 3D animated series that was presented Sunday at a festival in Lille before it runs on Netflix.

The series is based on the 1961 comic book "Asterix and the Big Fight", the seventh in the series illustrated by Albert Uderzo and written by Rene Goscinny about the pugnacious warrior Asterix and his menhir deliveryman sidekick Obelix.

There are five episodes of about 20 minutes each, with three being shown to an appreciative audience at the festival before they go live on the streaming site April 30.

After a flashback to the heroes' childhood where viewers discover how Obelix fell into the magic potion, the action returns to 50 BC, where the last independent village in Roman-occupied Gaul finds itself under siege.

The village druid Getafix has lost his mind, and the recipe for the potion, after Obelix accidentally crushes him with a menhir. The Romans stir up trouble between rival Gaulish tribes, and Chief Vitalstatistix must defeat his counterpart from a Gallo-Roman village, Ceramix, or risk falling under Caesar's yoke.

"I always liked 'The Big Fight' for the dynamic with the Gallo-Romans. Here, there are truly invaders, resistance fighters, and collaborators," said Chabat, who used his own voice to dub Asterix.

Actor Gilles Lellouche is the voice of Obelix, whom he played in the live action movie "Asterix & Obelix: The Middle Kingdom", which sold 4.6 million tickets in 2023.

But Chabat's 2002 Cleopatra movie remains by far the most successful adaptation of the Asterix comic books, with close to 15 million entries in France, making it the eighth most successful film in France, and the fourth for a French production.

Chabot's initial plan was to make a full-length animated movie but as production started he decided to turn it into a series, which gave him greater leeway to introduce new characters.

Some 400 million copies of Asterix books have been sold in 130 languages and dialects, with Ukrainian being added to the list earlier this year, and a 41st album is due in October.

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© Agence France-Presse