L to R: Julio Peña as Roi, Michelle Jenner as Keila, Pedro Alonso as Berlín, Tristán Ulloa as Damián, Joel Sánchez as Bruce get ready for action in an episode of “Berlín and the Lady with an Ermine.”
NETFLIX/FELIPE HERNANDEZ
Pedro Alonso’s charming, morally flexible thief is back, and audiences are showing up. Berlín and the Lady with an Ermine debuted at No. 1 on Netflix’s Global Top 10 for non-English TV shows, knocking the Korean romcom My Royal Nemesis off the top spot after its own debut at No. 1 the prior week.
The eight-episode series pulled in 6.2 million views and more than 46 million hours watched in its first week. Berlín and the Lady with an Ermine is second installment of the prequel in the Casa de Papel (Money Heist) spinoff universe. It follows Berlín and the Jewels of Paris, released in late December 2023.
In this new chapter, Berlín moves his operation from Paris to Seville, where he sets his sights on a duke with designs on a Leonardo da Vinci masterpiece.
Built on a Proven Foundation
The debut builds on a strong track record for the franchise. Season 1, which transported viewers back in time to explore the origin story of a main character from one of Netflix’s most popular series worldwide, was the most-watched series globally in its premiere week. That performance prompted Netflix to order a second season. It went on to stay in the Top 10 for seven consecutive weeks, accumulating 348 million hours viewed and 53 million total views, making it the ninth most-watched non-English series in Netflix history.
The series it spun off from set the bar even higher. Money Heist became the first non-English series to top Netflix’s global charts, and three of its seasons remain among the platform’s most-watched titles of all time. The fifth and final season came to an end in 2021.
A Heist Built on Revenge
The premise is classic Berlín: elaborate, personal and laced with irony. The gang isn’t actually after the painting, a 15th-century work known as Lady with an Ermine. Their real target is the Duke of Málaga and his wife, who made the mistake of trying to blackmail him. What starts as a calculated con quickly turns darker when the couple awakens something in Berlín he’d rather keep buried.
Alonso (Money Heist, Gran Hotel) reprises the role he’s made iconic, and creator Álex Pina describes this chapter as “a trip through the golden age of the character, when he robbed around Europe crazy in love.”
New Faces, Familiar Crew
Inma Cuesta (The Mess You Leave Behind, The Bride) joins as Candela, a new gang member who catches Berlín’s eye. José Luis García-Pérez (Honor, The Countryside) and Marta Nieto (Mother, Quién te cantará) play the Duke and Duchess of Málaga.
Returning cast members include Michelle Jenner (Isabel, The Cook of Castamar) as Keila, Tristán Ulloa (The Asunta Case, Fariña) as Damián, Begoña Vargas (Welcome to Eden, High Seas) as Cameron, Julio Peña Fernández (The Captive, Through My Window) as Roi, and Joel Sánchez (La favorita 1922) as Bruce.
Berlín and the Lady with an Ermine is created by Álex Pina and Esther Martínez Lobato (La casa de papel, Sky Rojo), written by Pina, Martínez Lobato, David Barrocal, Lorena G. Maldonado, Itziar Sanjuán, Humberto Ortega and Luis Garrido Julve, and directed by Albert Pintó (Sky Rojo, Malasaña 32), David Barrocal (Sky Rojo) and José Manuel Cravioto (Narcos: Mexico, The Bridge).
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