Hernán: the ambitious series that promises to dazzle viewers

Today, November 21, Hernán, the story of the Spanish conqueror, who defeated the great Aztec Empire officially start. An ambitious project that has created all kinds of expectations, from the development of production to the high budget it has had, impressive not only by Latin American standards, where it has already become one of the most expensive series, according to the newspaper Expansion.

What makes Hernán different from other historical series?

Hernán's production has worked on differentiating aspects of the series of other works on the history of Mexico, where Hernán Cortés is seen as the great villain in the history of the country, because thanks to him the collapse of the Aztec Empire occurred. Although Hernán does not seek to properly claim the figure of the conqueror, he does try to have a deep historical rigor and expose different facets of his personality, according to the same newspaper.

If there is a country that has acquired a great experience in the production of series with historical content is Spain, which curiously is also the place of origin of Hernán Cortés. A clear example is Isabel, whose 39 chapters were a real success in Spain and outside of it. That production also led to the film, The Split Crown (2016), which connects it with Carlos, King Emperor, the history of the grandson of the Catholic Monarchs.

On the other hand, Mexicans have also produced numerous historical series, the most recent one about the conquest is Malintzin, which tells the life of Marina, Malintzin or Malinche. She is a woman who served as a translator for Hernán Cortés and who has been seen by history as the great villain, traitor of a country that did not exist yet. With this background Dopamine of Mexico and Onza Entertainment of Spain have come together to tell the story of Cortés in the most realistic and accurate way possible.

The production

With approximately US$ 1.5 million for each of its eight episodes, according to Clarín, it is clearly an ambitious commitment to produce high quality content in the region. In a world of streaming and television where series such as Game of Thrones, Westworld, Outlander and Peaky Blinders, among other great productions, have left a deep mark, Hernán's challenge is to respond to this level of detail and find the right balance, without falling into clichés about the history of Mexico.

The Argentine newspaper reported that Hernán's production made different trips along the route that Cortés followed in 1519, between the port of Veracruz in the Gulf of Mexico and the capital of the empire, the current Mexico City. Each trip was designed for different components of the production: the cast, the writers and the producers to prepare in detail everything that the story requires.

The newspaper Expansión highlights the technical work of linguists, when investigating and training actors to speak Maya, Nahuatl and other pre-Hispanic languages with greater realism, considering the transformations that these languages have undergone in time and to put ourselves in the context of the communication problems that were experienced in the real story.

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The role of Hernán Cortés is played by Óscar Jaenada ( Luis Miguel, Cantinflas ), known for being the controversial father of "El Sol". In the role of Tlatoani Moctezuma Xocoyotzin, there is Dagoberto Gama (Amores Perros, El Crimen del Padre Amaro, Once upon a time in Mexico ), an actor with great experience in film and television inside and outside his country. The large cast is made up of Spanish actors such as Aura Garrido (The Ministry of Time) and Víctor Clavijo (The Ministry of Time), Argentina's Michel Brown (Falco) and Mexicans Jorge Guerrero (Rome) and Isabel Bautista who will be Malintzin, from agreement with Espinof.

How to narrate the Conquest of Mexico?

Much has been written about the Conquest of Mexico, but for those who do not know the history of the fall of the Aztec Empire, it is enough to say that Hernán Cortés arrived in 1519 on the Mexican coast, listening to stories about a great empire located in what is now the City from Mexico. His ambition and ability as a military strategist led him to perform a feat: with less than a thousand men he faced an empire, supported by enemy peoples of the Aztecs. Taking advantage of prophecies and differences among the natives, he advanced to the capital to bring it down.

Hernán will portray the crucial facts of the conquest, with an informed vision and aware that it is not the absolute truth, as he told the newspaper Expansión Fidela Navarro, CEO of the Dopamine production house. A major challenge has been to put on screen the great Tenochtitlan, the mythical capital of the empire, this was possible thanks to El Ranchito, a Spanish producer who is an expert in digital effects that has nothing less than his work in Game of Thrones.

Fidela Navarro commented to the same Mexican newspaper: "El Ranchito is one of the best studios in the world, we had the reference of what they had done in the battles of Game of Thrones, they are Spanish and we were looking for a company that was close and that spoke our own language in terms of team because that makes work easier. "

For Latin America the series will be available on Azteca, Amazon Prime and History Channel Latin America.