UNO Professor Serves as Series Historical Consultant on Netflix's "Alexander: The Making of a God"

Correction: This article has been updated to reflect Reames's title as Series Historical Consultant.

The University of Nebraska at Omaha (UNO) is proud to announce that Jeanne Reames, Ph.D., associate professor of history and director of the Ancient Mediterranean Studies Program, acted as the Series Historical Consultant for the upcoming docudrama, Alexander: The Making of a God. The series will premiere on Netflix on Wednesday, Jan. 31.

Originally a collaborative effort between Tailfeather Productions and the U.K. production company Lion TV before being picked up by Netflix, Reames was brought on board to advise producers, the showrunner, and writers regarding the historical accuracy of the six-part series.

She reviewed scripts, suggested historians to interview onscreen, and provided insights to maintain authenticity in storytelling.

“My role is to assist them in approaching these stories from a historical perspective. Being a novelist myself, I would often tell them, 'You can't do this. How about this instead?' So, at times, I would present them with an alternative, and in some cases, a couple of different alternatives, for them to consider and potentially incorporate into the narrative,” said Reames.

Reames’s first engagement with the project began with preliminary talks about the series scope; she then looked at “episode beats,” which outlined the essential aspects of the series, followed by carefully reviewing the scripts.

"I was involved in these initial beats. Beats are a couple of pages that go over the major points in an episode. Initially, we just had online discussions, like a Zoom conversation,” said Reames, “They put together these beats, and then I went over those, correcting basic things. Afterward, I delved into the scripts for the show, making necessary corrections.”

In her master’s program, Reames heard about Alexander the Great for the first time. Intrigued, she visited her university’s library where she found two contrasting biographies, Peter Green’s Alexander of Macedon and N. G. L. Hammond's Alexander: King Commander and Statesman. This encounter proved to be a turning point as she became enthralled by the varying depictions of the historical figure.

Reames, who began as a novelist rather than a historian, says, "I got really interested. I thought this guy needs a story. So, I come out of a background doing science fiction and fantasy and various things as an author including literary mainstream. Going into historical fiction, I had no idea what I'd bitten off," said Reames.

She wound up with a Ph.D. in the topic—although she did eventually publish Dancing with the Lion: Becoming and Rise in 2019, a historical fiction duology that tells the story of the young Alexander before he became “the Great.”

Prior to her collaboration with Netflix, Reames contributed over fifteen scholarly articles and book chapters on Alexander the Great and his court, covering topics such as warfare, relationships within the court, imperial narratives, and ancient Greek sexuality. She has also authored four chapters in Companion volumes, including the Cambridge Companion to Alexander the Great and Blackwell's Companion to Greek Warfare. Additionally, she has edited collections such as Macedon and Its Influences: Narratives of Politics and War (2025) and Macedonian Legacies (2008) and is currently working on an academic monograph titled Playing for Keeps: Hephaistion and Krateros at the Court of Alexander the Great. At UNO, she teaches classes on ancient Greece, Alexander, and the ancient near east.