«Queen of the South» is an American crime drama television series developed by M.A. Fortin and Joshua John Miller.
Let’s find out more about the series!
- Queen of the South is an American crime drama television series.
- It was developed by M.A. Fortin and Joshua John Miller.
- The series premiered on June 23, 2016.
- It concluded on June 9, 2021, with 62 episodes aired on USA Network.
- It is an adaptation of the telenovela La Reina del Sur which airs on USA’s sister network Telemundo
- Both are adapted from the novel La Reina del Sur by Spanish author Arturo Pérez-Reverte.
- The series was renewed for a fifth season on August 29, 2019.
- Production of the new season was suspended indefinitely on March 14, 2020, due to COVID-19, but resumed in fall 2020
- On March 8, 2021, it was announced that the fifth season would premiere on April 7, 2021, and serve as the series’ final season.
- Queen of the South concluded on June 9, 2021, after five seasons and 62 episodes.
- Queen of the South‘s first season received mixed to positive feedback from critics.
- On Rotten Tomatoes, it has a score of 68%, based on 19 reviews, with an average rating of 6.18/10.
- The site’s consensus reads: “Queen of the South enlivens an overdone premise with action and narrative vigor—and shows hints of intriguing potential.”
- On Metacritic, the first season scored 59 out of 100, based on 16 critics, indicating “mixed or average reviews”
- Queen of the South amassed a total of 285 million USD in the first season.
- Internationally, the series premiered in Australia on Showcase on August 4, 2016.
- German TV channel DMAX has been showing the series since June 14, 2017.
- The series is also available on Netflix.
- Pérez-Reverte, the author of the novel, has stated that a great source of inspiration was Mexican narcocorridos (drug ballads), country-polka songs that tell the stories about real-life Mexican drug lords.
- One of the real-life characters who inspired the novel is Sandra Ávila Beltrán, known as the “Queen of the Pacific”, famous for being one of the first female drug traffickers to reach the level of “Boss” in the Mexican cartels, a place usually reserved for men.
- Based on the novel Queen of the South by Arturo Perez-Reverte. Camilla, a main character in the television series, does not exist in the book.
- The actor of James, Peter Gadiot is actually British, born in London to a Mexican mother.
- Alice Braga who will be portraying Mexican Drug Lord “Teresa Mendoza” is actually Brazilian and not Mexican.
- Alice Braga dubbed her own voice for the Brazilian Portuguese airings of the series in the Space Brasil network.
- Alice Braga is a well-known Hollywood actress, who speaks English, Spanish and Portuguese fluently. This is the second time a Brazilian-born actor/actress portrays a drug Lord on a major TV show. The other one was Wagner Moura on Narcos.
- All the night location views titled Sinaloa, Mexico are in fact the colonial city Guanajuato in central Mexico.
- Early on Eva Mendes had been under consideration for the title role.
- The exterior shots of the club Camilla uses are of the world-famous Lizard Lounge, including the side entrance seen at the end of episode 3. The interior is an entirely different building altogether as the floor space is much larger than any inside the Lizard Lounge, and lacks its trademark stained glass windows.
- Peter Gadiot’s character James Valdez was uniquely not in Spanish author Arturo Pérez-Reverte’s original novel on which the series is based but simply added for additional dramatic effect.
- Actor Hemky Madera (Pote) initially auditioned to play Alice Braga (Teresa)’s father but ended up playing her sicario and trusted friend instead.
