Netflix maintains Spanish investment with more than 20 shows for 2024

The Asunta Case (Source: Netflix)

Netflix will launch more than 20 productions made in Spain in 2024 across scripted and documentary series and feature films. The platform will maintain the local investment compared to previous years and confirmed three more shows from the country.

The second season of hit comedy series Machos Alfa, produced by independent company Contubernio Films, will kick off the 2024 Spanish slate on 9 February. Some of the highlights of the year are the final season of YA drama series Elite, and The Asunta Case, a miniseries about the murder of 12-year-old Asunta Basterra by her own adoptive parents in 2013 in Galicia. The six-part show is produced by Studiocanal’s Bambú Producciones, which is also shooting period drama Manual Para Señoritas, another Netflix original series. The Asunta Case has all the makings to repeat the success of 2023 miniseries Burning Body.

Among the talent attached to the platform is Spanish filmmaker Álex de la Iglesia (HBO’s 30 Coins), who will launch terror series 1992, set in Seville. Catalan director Oriol Paulo is returning to Netflix with psychological thriller series La Última Noche en Tremor, the adaptation of a novel by Spanish author Mikel Santiago.

Drug traffic in Barcelona’s harbour will be explored in Mano de Hierro, the first scripted series by The Mediapro Studio for Netflix, while teen drama Ni Una Más will put the spotlight in sexual assault. The latter is produced by DLO Producciones, a Banijay Iberia participated company that is now shooting thriller series El Jardinero, also for Netflix.

The story of action thriller Bank Under Siege, based on real events, starts when, in 1981, eleven hooded men entered the headquarters of the Central Bank in Barcelona, challenging Spain’s recent democracy. Bank Under Siege will be the fifth show produced by independent company Brutal Media for the streamer.

With Breathless, Netflix and Elite’s co-creator Carlos Montero want to bring back “the big hospital dramas”. For Gangs of Galicia, the platform relies in Jorge Guerricaechevarría, one of the most prolific writers in Spain.

Local stories

The streamer is shooting rural comedy Animal Salvaje, by Alea Media, and the second season of The Snow Girl, produced by Atípica Films and based on a trilogy of novels.
Netflix is also launching four Spanish feature films in 2024, including the sequel to El Hoyo, a horror movie that was a global phenomenon during lockdown, as well as a documentary series about chef Dabiz Muñoz and another one about national football competition LaLiga.

Digging into local stories, Netflix has greenlit Superestar, a drama series about Spanish singer Yurena, a TV icon in the 90’s. “This is a show about the triumph of the antiheroes, about television as a double-edged sword. We wanted to do a wild and crazy show about that time in Spain, when there were no rules and everything was allowed on TV”, say Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi, the producers of the show from their own company Suma Content. Superestar is created by filmmaker Nacho Vigalondo, who previously directed some episodes of Netflix’s El Vecino.

Calvo and Ambrossi, whose latest creation, Movistar Plus+ drama series La Mesías, has been selected in Sundance Film Festival and sold to HBO Lat Am, are also working on the adaptation of Mi Querida Señorita, a disruptive Spanish feature film launched in 1972 about a man who feels like a woman. “We were looking forward to revisiting a classical movie and we have finally found it. Mi Querida Señorita is a chance to go deeper into LGTBI issues and it is also a big love story”, says Calvo.

Another new show with local flavour is a documentary series about Carmen Cervera, a celebrity in Spain who started her career as a miss and became Thyssen Baroness in 1985. The show is produced by Komodo Studio, an independent company specialised in docu-reality series (I Am Georgina, Lady Tamara).