Hernán
Hernán is the most ambitious Spanish-language fiction series produced in Latin America for the world. The first 8-episode season is born from the collaboration between the Mexican company Dopamine, the audiovisual content studio of Grupo Salinas, and the Spanish company Onza Entertainment.
Óscar Jaenada (Camarón, 2005; Cantinflas, 2015; Luis Miguel La Serie, 2018) plays the Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés. Michel Brown (Pasión de gavilanes, 2003; Falco, 2018), Víctor Clavijo (Tres días, 2008; Gernika, 2016) and Almagro San Miguel (Grupo 2 Homicidios, 2017; Amar es para siempre, 2017/18) will be the captains Pedro de Alvarado, Cristóbal de Olid and Gonzalo de Sandoval, respectively; while Miguel Ángel Amor (Hispania, 2010; Tiempos de guerra, 2017) will bring the narrator, Bernal Díaz del Castillo, to life.
On the other hand, Jorge Antonio Guerrero (Roma and Luis Miguel, both from 2018) will portray the Tlaxcalan prince Xicoténcatl, Dagoberto Gama (Amores perros, 2000; La dictadura perfecta, 2014) in the role of Moctezuma and Mitzi Mabel Cadena (Ingobernable, 2017) in that of Doña Luisa. And one of the series’ star roles, La Malinche, is in the promising hands of Ishbel Bautista, a young emerging actress who passed an exhaustive casting process carried out throughout Mexico. The main cast includes Cristian Gamero (Jerónimo de Aguilar) and special appearances by Aura Garrido and Silverio Palacios.
The shooting, which took place in natural locations in various parts of Mexico and a studio in the country’s capital, has required the construction of many of the sets where the plot takes place. A considerable effort was made by the special effects company El Ranchito (Game of Thrones) so that the viewer could visualize the most faithful portrayal possible of Tenochtitlan and other places that have disappeared so long ago.
In this quest to recreate a place and a time lost, the series was shot in Spanish as well as in Mayan and Nahuatl, languages in which the cast learned., Additionally, the cast studied horsemanship and period weapon handling, among other skills.
The objective is to recreate a lost world, that of the spectacular Tenochtitlan, staying true to its rigor and splendor. To achieve this, a 300-person technical, artistic and historical team has been working together for months. Since the production of the series, which coincides with the 500th anniversary of Hernán Cortés’s momentous arrival in what is now Mexico, no effort has been spared to ensure that the result lives up to the occasion.