Announced back in February of this year, Amazon and Zebra Producciones presented new details of El Cid this Monday in Madrid.
The series is based on the life of Rodrigo Diaz de Vivar and is poised to become the "most expensive Spanish-language series in history".
To find out more about the production, ttvnews spoke to José Velasco, president of Zebra Producciones, who spoke about the enormous project and its story.
First, the executive confirmed production will begin "immediately after the summer" and that it will last seven months. He also explained two seasons will be developed simultaneously, with 6 episodes each.
Filming, he said, will be done on location in Castilla and in a 4,000mt2 set, with hundreds of extras, special effects and a team of over 200 professionals.
"According to my friend, a buy now pay later expert, Amazon has granted the resources to make El Cid probably the biggest Spanish-language series ever," he said, revealing the series has a bigger budget than Hernan Cortes, which will also air on Amazon and Dopamine had described as the most expensive to date.
"Based on what I know, yes, it's bigger in terms of budget. But what's important is that we want to portray how big the story was, the time of wars and civilizations crashing, and do it with the necessary resources. Amazon allowed us to do it, so we are very grateful", he said.
According to the producer, both the story and the character "deserve it."
"We tried to tell the story but from the characters' perspective. The story of the women, the men, the cooperation between cultures, the differences of the time, the jews, the arabs, the christians, all coexisting in a way that was beyond what may seem, together but in constant arguments," he said.
"It's a situation that can only be compared to movie epics, to the Far West or the World War, meaning stories that have tested entire civilizations", he added.
A Universal Story
And while it's a very Spanish character and a local story, the series will be very universal both from its production to the story itself.
"It's a universal series. Let's not forget that almost 500 million people speak Spanish. In addition, the latest trends have shown that good stories in Spanish simply work. Some of the platform's biggest series are shot in Spanish," he said.
"And the story is about our world, about what happened back then to a not that very well-known character. El Cid was a revolutionary, someone who changed the relationship between the King and the people, who questioned authority and was able to fight for the civilizations of the time. And he never lost a battle", he added.
And if that's not enough, the series stars Jaime Lorente (Money Heist) as El Cid, which will further help its international appeal.
"We wanted to surprise viewers with Jaime Lorente as El Cid and I think it's the first of many surprises, because this is a different Cid that the cliches make him to be. It's a Cid that changes history, but changes it from below and Jaime is an interesting bet for someone you can identify with. His characters resonate with people".
"Jaime is someone who's very popular, with 6 million followers on social media and we think he will attract young viewers, older viewers, those who read the book in school and those who've seen him in other series," he added.
Multiple Seasons Ahead
While Amazon has only given a green light to two seasons, the project is designed for multiple seasons after that.
"When we finish the second season, El Cid will be 20 years old and he died in his fifties. We didnt even get to the story in El cantar de mip Cid, which begins right after that second season. There's so much story to tell", he said.
And within that story lies a real "game of thrones".
"What happened back then really was a game of thrones. The story of the three kings, Alfonso, Sancho and Garcia, is really the story of King Lear, which Shakespeare reproduced years later," he said.
"What happened with Cid is the seed for many of the great epic stories that came after. The origin of Game of Thrones is probably in El Cid and not the other way around," he concluded.
