For fans of “Plus belle la vie”, the face of Marwan Berreniuntraceable since his car hit a pedestrian leaving a nightclub near Mâcon (Saône-et-Loire) on the night of August 3, is confused with that of Abdel Fedala, a brilliant lawyer flirting with the underworld Marseille, which the actor plays in the emblematic France 3 soap opera.
Arriving in the series in April 2009, he is one of the characters dear to the hearts of viewers from the start. Announced in the new version of the series, bought by TF1, his return was eagerly awaited. For now, the production must deal with the absence of the actor. The start of filming is scheduled for October 23 in the Belle-de-Mai studios, in Marseille (Bouches-du-Rhône).
“Out of respect for the viewers, we will not act as if nothing had happened”
“We have to separate the news item, which makes us very sad, and the professional aspect,” underlines Stéphanie Brémond, deputy general director in charge of serials and long series at Newen Studios. When we work on a daily soap opera, we are very pragmatic. We are used to dealing with actors who are unavailable, because they are at the theater or want to take a break. When we learned of the disappearance of Marwan Berreni, we were working on different hypotheses to start the story. We therefore settled on a hypothesis where the character of Abdel Fedala is not present. »
In the last bonus, broadcast on November 18, 2022, the emotion of viewers echoed the cheers of the inhabitants of Mistral. Abdel and Barbara, played by Léa François, had just said “yes” to each other. For many fans of the program, the love story between the son of a mafioso and the daughter of a cop, two heroes they saw grow up, is the most beautiful of the series. “Out of respect for the viewers, we will not act as if nothing had happened,” ures Stéphanie Brémond, who has no intention of replacing the actor. Abdel’s absence will be mentioned. But, out of respect for the drama, we are not going to dwell on it. »
The first episodes will be broadcast on TF1 in early 2024. The broadcast time, probably after the 1 p.m. news, is not yet known.