Disney+ Debuts Footage From Spanish Series ‘Return To Las Sabinas,’ Execs Talk Strategy Behind Making A “Very Local” Melodrama — Iberseries & Platino Industria
Disney+ shared some early footage from its upcoming original Spanish series Return To Las Sabinas (Regreso a Las Sabinas) this morning at Iberseries and Platino Industria in Madrid.
The series drops on Disney+ on October 11 and is one of the streamer’s first forays into the production of daily series. The first five episodes of Return To Las Sabinas will drop on October 11 while the remaining episodes will air one each day from Monday to Friday starting October 14.
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The series, which consists of 70 episodes, was created by Eulàlia Carrillo and is directed by Jordi Frades, who was on the ground here at Iberseries and Platino Industria with Sofía Fábregas, VP of Original Production, Spain.
“We thought why is nobody doing this? Why is there no daily programming on any of the platforms,” Fábregas told the crowd in Madrid of the premise behind the series. “We thought who could do this? And then we thought of our partners at Diagonal. They are very experienced in this form of series.”
Return To Las Sabinas is produced in collaboration with Banijay outfit Diagonal TV, best known for series like Love in Difficult Times (Amar en tiempos revueltos), Amar es para siempre, and the recently released Dreams of Freedom (Sue?os de Libertad).
Return To Las Sabinas stars local actors Andrés Velencoso, Celia Freijeiro, ángela Molina, Olivia Molina, Natalia Sánchez, Miquel Fernández, María Casal, and Nancho Novo. The plot follows the Molina sisters who, after many years without seeing each other, receive a call that makes them return to their hometown, Manterana, to attend to their father’s health problems. This unexpected return means reconnecting with the life and loves they tried to forget.
“We wanted to make a classical melodrama,” Frades said of the series, adding that he and his collaborators — which included 10 screenwriters — decided to tap into the specific milieu of Spanish life to shape the production.
“From early on, we decided we had to be very local with everything, the cast and costumes. All the passion that could be associated with Spain. That flesh and passion. The aroma is very much ours, very Mediterranean, very Latin. It’s all there,” he said.
Fábregas added that as a company Disney believes in the “idiosyncrasies of countries” and the power those unique details hold to launch global series that can connect with audiences around the world.
“It [Return To Las Sabinas] has all the ingredients: hate, love, and all of the emotional fabric that we share around the world,” she said.
Frades added: “This is just a series for everyone who enjoys melodrama.”
Iberseries & Platino Industria runs until October 4.
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