Latino Impact In Netflix Series 

Ana Perez

Netflix’s Top Ten list has become a go-to for quality recommendations. Series with Latino participation dominated the list throughout 2020. Among Netflix’s Top 10 charts from Dec. 4, 2020, to Dec. 10, 2020 were: The Queen’s Gambit, Selena: The Series, Mr. Iglesias, and The Umbrella Academy.

Whether it was on-camera or behind the scenes, or shows with Latinos in lead roles consistently ranked high on the Netflix Top 10 lists and have remained there for weeks at a time.

The Umbrella Academy and The Queen’s Gambit are two prominent shows that lived on the Top 10 list for weeks and are Netflix’s biggest superhero series.

To put things in perspective, Nielsen reported that 3.011 billion minutes of The Umbrella Academy were watched collectively in one week, and this is with only two seasons of the superhero streaming series. David Castaneda is one of seven diverse stars on the show and season 3’s cast will expand and feature Genesis Rodriguez (Big Hero 6). 

Since its release in October 2020, The Queen’s Gambit had, according to Netflix, an impressive 62 million households watch within the first 28 days of its premiere, making it the most-watched scripted limited series on the streamer. Lead actress Anya Taylor-Joy, who comes from a large Argentinian family, unlike her character Beth Harmon in The Queen’s Gambit, personally claimed the No. 8 spot on IMDb’s Top 10 Breakout Stars of 2020 list. The drama miniseries is centered around an orphaned chess prodigy.  The series has brought about a resurgence in chess. 

According to The Guardian, eBay reported that chess set sales went up by 60%  and chess accessories have climbed a whopping 215%, which correlates with the screening of The Queen’s Gambit.

Xolo Mariduena is a series regular in the Emmy nominated and fan-favorite Cobra Kai, which after two years on YouTube Red moved over to Netflix for season three.  As of Jan. 1 Cobra Kai became the most popular returning original series, taking the #2 spot on the Netflix Top 10 list on New Year’s Day.

Another hit show on Netflix is the teen dramedy On My Block which was created by Eddie Gonzalez, Lauren Iungerich, and Jeremy Haft. Last year right before season 4 was announced, On My Block was top of the Netflix Top Ten list as the highest rating series with a 94.1% rating, which is based on the week-over-week growth in episodes watched.

Then of course there are other popular series that either have a Latino-themed storyline or have Latino actors in the lead.  Included in this list are Narcos: Mexico, the freshman comedy series Gentefied about a Mexican family chasing the American Dream, already renewed for a 2nd season, however, delayed due to the pandemic. And added to the Netflix lineup beginning on January 1 is Telemundo’s  Jenni Rivera: Mariposa de Barrio, the story about the late singer Mexican singer Jenni Rivera.

Latinos continue to hold down Netflix and hopefully, we’ll have even more Latino representation in 2021. 

Featured Photo: Latin Heat Media