Remember when Netflix was just a curious website that sent you DVDs in red envelopes and didn’t charge you when you forgot to send them back? Ah yes, those quaint years before they inverted their logo colors, got rid of the drop shadow, and turned into a 21st century global media empire. Just in the last year they officially added “movie studio” to their list of additional skills and began a Latin American invasion by expanding their streaming service to Cuba – ironically one of the least connected countries on earth – and premiering their first Spanish-language original series, Club de Cuervos.
Our faithful readers may also be aware that phase two of their Latin American conquest recently initiated with the announcement of their upcoming political series Ingobernable and the Brazilian sci-fi thriller 3%, and we can now add yet another ambitious Mexican project to their 2017 slate.
Las Leyendas will be Netflix’s first animated original series produced in Latin America. If the title sounds familiar to you, that’s because it’s being produced by Anima Estudios, the same animation studio that brought Mexican audiences the Leyendas trilogy, including La leyenda de la Nahuala (The Legend of the Nahuala), La leyenda de la Llorona (The Legend of the Llorona) and La leyenda de las Momias de Guanajuato (The Legend of the Mummies). It will be based on characters created by producer Ricardo Arnaiz.
The series’ official synopsis suggests it will follow firmly in the footsteps of Anima’s previous work, but this time with some Anglo writing muscle in the form of James Krieg, who previously worked on Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated, Ben 10, and Justice League. Set in the 19th century, Leo San Juan is a teenaged boy who must team up with a “phantasmagorical group of misfits” after his hometown is sucked into another dimension. Alongside a social media whiz, a mythical alebrije, and two sugar candy skulls, Leo sets out to defeat Quetzalcoatl, described as “an inter-dimensional entity who has sought to conquer the universe for centuries,” opening up the series to some interesting post-colonial readings.
We only have a few visuals to work with, but together with Anima’s previous productions they definitely give us an idea of the style we can expect from this groundbreaking undertaking.
Las Leyendas will premiere worldwide on Netflix in 2017.