A new country, a new cast. If the tenacity of the third season was anything to go by, we’re in for another wild one with Narcos season 4.
Few television shows can keep me engaged for an entire season these days, let alone an entire series. With such fierce competition comes a healthy tug-of-war between users’ short attention spans and quality programs.
What may be both a curse and a blessing is the way Narcos feeds such compelling storytelling to the viewer from such raw true events. The first three seasons follow the real-life escapades of the Medellin and Cali cartels as they rose and fell as Columbia’s reigning drug kingpins. When recounting a historical timeline, however, there’s only one direction you can really go after all your characters have, in keeping with reality, dropped off the perch.
Despite this, the most recent Narcos season managed to scrap one half of their lead cast and still deliver a fast-paced and suspenseful storyline. Narcos season 4, however, is set to flip the whole paradigm we’ve become accustomed to on its head. To do that with such a well-established show at this stage in the game takes great guts, and can make or break a programme. But it’s for this reason that I have faith it’ll work.
Deadline is reporting that a new cast, a new country and a new cartel are joining the ranks of Narcos season 4. Diego Luna (Rogue One) is set to play Miguel Ángel Félix Gallardo, the leader of the Guadalajara cartel that goes only by the name Félix. Godfather of the modern-day Mexican drug trade, Félix was a loyal but ruthless leader, quiet but powerful. Luna, who played a bit of an apprehensive hero in the acclaimed Star Wars spin-off, is taking the role of the cold and calculated cartel boss. His transition between roles as an actor, not to mention that I think he was expertly chosen for the running themes of the show, will be an incredibly intriguing watch.
Ant-Man’s Michael Peña is slated to star as Kiki Camarena, a family man and undercover DEA agent who moves to Guadalajara with his wife and young son to infiltrate Félix’s operations. As the web of deceit, wealth and violence grow, Kiki becomes entangled with Félix to a point of no return and a tragic sequence of events. Narcos season 4 “will explore the origins of the modern Mexican drug war by going back to its roots, beginning at a time when the Mexican trafficking world was a loose and disorganized confederation of independent growers and dealers.”
Eric Newman returns this season as the Executive Producer and showrunner, while original creators Doug Miro and Carlo Bernard are back as Executive Producers. Prior seasons have dropped around the end of August or the start of September, so it’s likely a trailer is just as near as the actual release. In the meantime, get acquainted with the funky new theme tune below. We’ll be sure to bring you the fourth season’s first clip when it drops, but in the meantime, you’ve got a month to binge the entire series over on Netflix. Get cracking.
