After the departure of Marilyne Canto, France 3 broadcast this evening the last episode of the series “Alex Hugo” with Lionel Astier. Will the interpreters of Christine and Angelo be replaced in the next episodes? Samuel Le Bihan responds.
A page in the history of Alex Hugo has just turned.
After broadcasting last Tuesday an investigation which marked the departure of Christine Dorval, embodied by Marilyne Canto, France 3 offered this evening to its polar buff viewers another very important unpublished episode of Alex Hugo, since this one staged the farewells of Lionel Astier, alias Angelo Batalla, present in the credits since the very first episode.
“I’m going to stop, today I think I’ve done the rounds of my character, I feel like we’re in a bit of a repeat about him, so I’m like ‘if I don’t do it now…’confided Lionel Astier to Télé Loisirs in 2021 to explain the reasons for his departure.
In less than two weeks, Alex Hugo loses two emblematic figures of the series. And if the adventures of the most popular mountain cop on the small screen will continue even more – two episodes are already in stock and two others will soon be shot – there is a priori no question of replacing the interpreters of Christine and Angelo.
“That’s not the idea. Not at the moment anyway”explained to us Samuel Le Bihan in the context of an interview carried out last month at Séries Mania. “First, they continue to exist. There are photos of Angelo everywhere in the police station. We had fun talking about his absence, we play it on the screen. But the idea is rather to bring another form of novelty. We want to reinvent Alex Hugo after these departures. We don’t really know how yet, we are working on it, each episode arrives in this direction”.
François LEFEBVRE – FTV – DALVA
“We could have ‘replaced’ Lionnel, of course, but isn’t there a better idea to be found?”, continued Samuel Le Bihan, who reacted with emotion to the departure of his friend and playing partner, before confiding to us that, in the immediate future, the objective of the production and the screenwriters is rather to involve guests. As will be the case in the episode “Cold Case”, filmed last year, which will welcome Anne Charrier (Syndrome E) for the time of a promising investigation.
“In the immediate future, we made the choice to give more space to guests. It’s an opportunity to meet people, to try new things. We did it with Anne Charrier, on an episode which has already been shot. She has more space, she really exists in a very strong way. It’s equal to equal with Hugo, because she plays a city cop who comes to disrupt his world. That’s what is interesting today. We see how we can shake things up a bit and move forward.”.
However, let the fans be reassured, not everything changes in Alex Hugo. Indeed, in addition to the hero camped since 2014 by Samuel Le Bihan, viewers will continue to find Pascal Renart and Tony Leblanc, interpreted respectively by Mikaël Fitoussi and Fabien Baïardi.
“Pascal Renart is still there. It’s like Tony Leblanc, they’ve been there from the start, they’re still in place. Fortunately, there are pillars that don’t move (laughs)”. Good news for the faithful of Alex Hugo who will be happy to learn that the detective series still has a bright future ahead of it.