Written by Judi Jordan

The Imagen Awards was co-founded by legendary television producer and writer Norman Lear, who lived to the ripe age of 101, and passed in 2023. A deeply curious and humane person, Mr. Lear’s awareness of the void of positive portrayals of Latinos in the entertainment industry gave weight to the importance of positive Latino images. 

Norman Lear would be so proud of the 2025 nominees. His quest to see Latinos portrayed with respect and creativity is met in the ten categories including Drama, Comedy, Docs, Shorts and more. Helen Hernandez is the President & Founder of the Imagen Foundation who produces the Imagen Awards.

LATIN HEAT + IMAGEN  – Part One

The suave Latin devils of old Hollywood TV cliches have been replaced by a crop of intriguing, grown men with callings, consciences and inner conflicts. 

These new Drama Kings are dyslexic, intuitive, vulnerable (Will Trent/ Ramón Rodriguez) caring, conflicted, educated (The Cleaning Lady/Santiago Cabrera) regretful, emotive and resolute, (The Last of Us/Pedro Pascal) evolved, affable and effective, (Lincoln Lawyer/Manuel Garcia-Rulfo) and lonely, wary, idealistic (Andor/Diego Luna) These roles played to the talent’s dramatic strengths while offering exciting nuances that kept audiences tuning in weekly or binging – streamer contingent.  

Drama Kings – modern Latin Lovers are vulnerable, aspirational, responsible and gainfully-if sometimes painfully-employed. These seasoned IMAGEN-nominated men defy the tired one-dimensional stereotypes of heartless seducers, skeezy scammers and gun-happy cholos.

Established TV and film stars in uncommen roles wowed their fans with new facets of their talent and audiences approved. With resumes, personas and ‘chops’ that TV networks and streamer execs respect, TV showrunners craft episodes that highlight and challenge their characters’ strengths. 

Three seasons of Will Trent blew up the long, steady career of Ramón Rodriguez! Who knew he had 20+ film roles on his resume including G-20, Gang Related, Transformers? His memorable early TV work on The Wire 2002-2008 laid the foundation. By the time Will Trent arrived, Ramón Rodriguez, in the title role, was more than ready. His heartfelt, eccentric Southern detective is fascinating, never parodied. Will Trent, broken and brave feels embedded in his soul, but joy has crept into the series with dance numbers that lighten the storyline and a thoughtful, romantic storyline with Gina Rodriguez that fans loved.

An executive producer on the show, Rodriguez directed the exceptional Season 3 premiere episode and will direct again in Season 4. Deadline broke the story that Rodriguez recently signed a multi-year deal with 20^th Television, to develop and produce series and films for Disney, a fitting outcome for the gifted, dedicated multi-hyphenate. 

Santiago Cabrera is nominated for his dark turn as Jorge Sanchez, the highly-reluctant Harvard-educated drug cartel leader of the Sin Cara Cartel, in the gritty Fox/Hulu series The Cleaning Lady. Chilean-born Cabrera joined the show in seasons 3 and 4. Typically cast as the hero, female fans still swoon over his pitch-perfect portrayal of dashing, soulful Aramis in the 3-season BBC hit show Musketeers, now airing on Hulu. His 20-year working streak of good guy supporting and leads in Picard, Heroes, Merlin, Salvation, and prestige series romantic roles in Big Little Lies, Flight Attendant, Land of Women, and a kindly ghost Richard Deetz in Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice called for a change. 

Cabrera had resisted drug lord roles for years; but tempted by the premise, he used his discomfort – his very conflicted Jorge feels real. He admits, “It was fun to play the bad guy.” Audiences witnessed a very different Cabrera with a gun in his hand wading through cartel carnage as the ambiguous yet ambitious man with a plan that goes south by the hour. Not to mention a fraudulent marriage with Thony, a fearless Cambodian female doctor (played by Elodie Yung), who dissects bodies of cartel enemies in exchange for his protection. Plagued at every step by his obsessed sociopath sister Ramona (Kate de Castillo) for control of Sin Cara, Santiago’s Jorge is an idealist, out of his depth in the blood-soaked world.  

STAY TUNED.  NEXT UP: Sci-Fi Nominees

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And The Oscar Goes To…

All the signs are there pointing to a big night for Emilia Pérez, beginning with the Venice Film Festival where the three lead actresses, Karla Sofía Gascòn (El Senior de los cielos), Zoe Saldaña (Avatar, Lioness) and Selena Gomez (Only Murders in the Building), all share the Best Actress Award, afirst for that prestigious film festival.

At the Golden Globes, Saldaña’s show stopping singing and dancing performance of El Mal, won for Best Song, The genre busting, musical, drama, crime story, gender bending saga of physical, spiritual change and search for redemption, also won Best Film from France, as well as Best Motion Picture.

Legendary blockbuster filmmaker / director, James Cameron (Titanic, Avatar) said; “Emilia Pérez is just not like any other film that’s ever been made. It’s bold, daring, a vision.” And that daring and vision has resulted in 13 Oscar nominations including for: Best Adapted Screenplay, Original Score, International Feature, Supporting Actress, Actress, Director and Picture.

Zoe Saldaña is a shoo-in to win Best Supporting Actress. She’s already taken honors at the Golden Globes, Critic’s Choice and BAFTA award shows. All that’s missing is a Nobel Peace Prize and Baseball’s MVP Award. Look for Zoe to bring down the house when she performs El Mal.  Zoe has shown herself to be a topflight action/adventure star in Avatar, Guardians of the Universe and my favorite TV series; Lioness. But as the morally conflicted lawyer, Rita Mora Castro, Zoe Saldaña brings her acting, singing and dancing talents in full, brilliant display that will surely garner her Best Supporting Actress honors.

Karla Sofía Gascón is the first trans person ever nominated for an Academy Award. As the arch criminal, drug cartel kingpin, Manitas, who is surgically transformed into Emalia Pérez, Gascón’s portrayal is eerie, chilling, disturbing, but ultimately sympathetic and one colored with humanity. Manitas is an evil dude who through his metamorphosis into Emilia, tries valiantly to cleanse his soul and find ultimate redemption as a human being…as a woman.

Right now, Gascón is the betting favorite to win best Actress, but she faces stiff sentimental competition from Demi Moore in The Substance. However, Gascón’s nomination has been plagued over a controversy revolving around some seemingly racist remarks she made on social media. Hollywood immediately responded by essentially blackballing her. She was excluded from Netflix’s marketing campaign for the film. Even some of her co—stars and director of the movie expressed extreme disappointment in her perceived racist remarks and distanced themselves from her.

Initially, Netflix refused to pay for Gascón to attend the Oscars but have since reversed themselves and are paying for her to attend the ceremonies. Could it be Netflix senses (as this writer does) Emilia Pérez is going to win a boatload of Oscars and it will be a huge feather in Netflix’s streaming platform cap?

This controversy also raises the question: Do we punish artists for offensive behavior or remarks outside of their art? I think not. Mel Gibson said awful things about Jewish people. He was not blackballed and went on to make Hacksaw Ridge and Apocalypto  to critical praise. Gibson subsequently apologized for the remarks and so has Karla Sofía Gascón for her unfortunate social media posts.

Hopefully, the dark cloud of controversy over the nomination of Karla Sofía Gascón will dissipate, and the Academy will judge her solely for her groundbreaking performance in Emilia Pérez. 

That performance by this talented trans person has cultural and social significance because in this current political climate where homophobia, and hatred of the LGBTQ+ community has been validated in Executive Orders signed in bold Magic Marker scrawls, a Best Actress Oscar for Gascón would send a much-needed ray of hope and light in these uncertain times.

Selena Gomez did not receive an Oscar nomination for her role as Jessi del Monte, the troubled wife of Manitas. She did receive acting nods from BAFTA and the Golden Globes and this often award snubbed actress who has grown from a tiny tyke on Barney, the Purple Dinosaur, to a teen star on the Disney Channel’s The Wizards of Waverly Place, to an international pop singing sensation to currently being the pillar in the acting trio of Steve Martin and Martin Short on Only Murders in the Building, has proven in her tough, dark performance in Emilia Pérez,she is more than ready to take on serious, demanding  dramatic roles and will be a force to be reckoned with in the future.

The Oscars are right around the corner, and it looks like a battle between Wicked and Emilia Pérez to take top honors. Will this be the year Latino Hollywood can at long last finally celebrate by grabbing the brass ring? Well, I echo Manitas’ cooly confident affirmation: “Bingo!”
The Academy Awards, hosted by Conan O’Brien, air on Sunday, March 3, on ABC and stream on Hulu.

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By Catherine Jones

I don’t want to admit this (especially publicly here on this platform), but I did not watch the romantic comedy series Jane the Virgin during its successful run on the CW network from 2014 to 2019. Not one episode. Yep, as a self-proclaimed Latina “girl power” kinda feminist and a long-time journalist covering the U.S. Latinx community, I didn’t watch a show loosely based on a popular Venezuelan telenovela called Juana la Virgen. And I’ve loved telenovelas since I grew up watching them with my abuelita in Miami, Fla.

Sure, It was my day job (and it’s also my passion) to highlight Latinos/as doing amazing things in the U.S. Latino community. But, again, I somehow missed the boat on watching Jane the Virgin in primetime.

Why am I making this confession now (as disturbing as it may be)? Because I’ve seen the errors of my way! I now get it. I see why the show was No. 1 during its debut. I understand why it’s currently one of the most streamed, binge-watched TV series on Netflix. And I understand why my tween and teen daughters love watching it as much as I loved watching telenovelas with Abuelita back in the day.

It’s pure genius – a modern-day masterpiece of storytelling (and I was an English literature major in college, so I know not to make declarative statements like these if I can’t back them up).

Created by Jennie Snyder Urman, the show’s premise revolves around Jane Villanueva, a 20-something-year-old Latina who becomes accidentally artificially inseminated and ends up pregnant, despite having never been sexually active.

And then the true telenovela unravels from there, following Jane’s journey as she navigates the challenges of her unexpected pregnancy, her relationships (including a unique one with her baby daddy Rafael Solano, played by the handsome Justin Baldoni), family dynamics (with her Abuela and single mom, played by Ivonne Coll Mendoza and Andrea Navedo, respectively), and her pursuit of her career aspirations (which included trying to become a telenovela writer and romance author).

I knew that Jane the Virgin was a dramedy, with over 1 million viewers per episode, but no one told me, as I’m now sharing with you, how darn witty it is. Even the website Rotten Tomatoes, known for rating TV shows and movies, gave the series 100% Rotten Tomatoes, a top honor not accomplished by many.

From the show’s narrator breaking the fourth wall to guide us viewers through Jane’s life, to the use of social media hashtags, to addressing contemporary dilemmas like an accidental sex tape, Jane the Virgin is as hip and relevant today as, say, ABC’s Modern Family. Or as any episode of NBC’s The Office. Yeah, it’s that good.

The fact that the cast is diverse, with Puerto Rican actress Gina Rodriguez in the lead, is just the cherry on top. And its use of Spanish and English, and Spanglish? That’s just gravy for anyone who loves the exploration of cultural and social themes in the U.S. Latino community.

To those of you looking to relive younger years of telenovela watching at home, but with a new generation and an updated twist, I’d like to recommend watching Jane the Virgin on Netflix, y pronto. Plus, according to a recent OK! Magazine interview with Jaime Camil – who played Jane’s Telenovela star father, Rogelio de la Vega, there may be a Jane the Virgin reunion with 10 new episodes. What!?

So, don’t be like me and miss out on the fun this time around. Your future self may never forgive you for missing the boat … along with all of the new family bonding that comes with watching a great telenovela.

This article originally ran on Nuestro Stories 

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By Mina Briseño

Actress Marlene Forte is reprising her role as Judge Teresa Medina on Season 2 of Netflix’s The Lincoln Lawyer. Although it was originally a one day gig when she first worked on the show, Forte decided it was a role she needed to play and that decision led to the seven episode recurring role for season two. She will be presiding over the cases Mickey Haller, played by Manuel Garcia Rulfo, in one of the hottest show currently streaming on Netflix.

Forte plays the smart, overworked, and formidable judge who presides over an arraignment court downtown Los Angeles. Armed with a dry sense of humor, she does not suffer fools gladly but can tell a good argument when she sees one.

Adapted from Michael Connelly’s book “The Brass Verdict”, The Lincoln Lawyer is a compelling and gripping legal drama streaming television series created for television by David E. Kelley and developed by Ted Humphrey, The show stars a fairly newcomer Manuel Garcia-Rulfo as Mickey Haller as well as Neve Campbell, Becki Newton and Anhus Sampson. 

The Lincoln Lawyer premiered on Netflix in May 2022 to rave reviews and ratings. The show was so popular, Netflix announced the 2nd season renewal just one month after its premiere. The second season of The Lincoln Lawyer is currently in post production and is scheduled for a fall 2023 premiere. 

In the meantime, Forte adds another recurring role to her credits as Karla Juarez, on season five of ABC’s The Rookie. Forte plays Celina Juarez’s mother played by actress Lizette Chavez. Karla is an agoraphobic woman who paints picture of her cockatiels, Lorca and Neruda, from her home to make a living. 

The Rookie the a police procedural crime drama television series created by Alexi Hawley for ABC. The series currently in its 5^th Season is based on real-life Los Angeles Police Department officer William Norcross.

Forte’s 2019 performance as the mother of Ana de Armas character in the Golden Globe Best Picture nominated film Knives Out got a lot of play. The Way Back opposite Ben Affleck; Hypochondriac, a psychological thriller about mental health on AppleTV and Prime Video, in which she is also a producer, the soon to be released Aristotle and Dante Discover The Secrets Of The Universe with an all Latin cast including Eugenio Derbez. 

Bel Hernandez host of TheTRENDTalk Show recently sat down with Forte to talk about her upcoming role in The Lincoln Lawyer and her career in general.

 Her TV/streaming credits include Netflix’s Altered Carbon and Good Girls and ABC’s Superstore, AMC’s Fear The Walking Dead, Marvel’s Runaways on Hulu, ABC’s Grey’s Anatomy, and Fox’s The Resident, among others.

 Marlene Forte is repped by Paulo Andrés at Rothman Andrés and BRS/Gage Talent Agency.

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Written by Roberto Leal

“A dozen press agents working overtime can do terrible things to the human spirit”—Cecil B. DeMille, Sunset Boulevard

Of the countless books and films about Marilyn Monroe almost all without exception have dealt with the well-known established Hollywood datapoints of her life and career: Her phenomenal rise to stardom, her two failed marriages, her miscarriages, her affairs with JFK and Bobby Kennedy, her addictions and the controversy surrounding her suicide in 1962 at the age of 36. But the facts about Marilyn’s Hispanic heritage were also well-documented and well-known but kept secret from the public when Hollywood transformed Norma Jean Mortensen into Marilyn Monroe.

A Mexican by Any Other Name

Hollywood put Marilyn’s ancestral family roots in the Great White American Midwest.  That was partly true, but they left out the fact that Marilyn’s maternal grandparents left the Midwest in the 1890s for Mexico due to financial hardships. They relocated in what is now Piedras Negras just across the border from Eagle Pass, Texas. they quickly assimilated in the norteño ranching and farming lifestyle and became completely “Mexicanized.” 

Marilyn’s mother, Gladys Pearl, was born in Mexico in 1902, therefore by birthright, Marilyn Monroe was a Latina. Unlike some famous celebrities of that time, like Hall of Fame slugger, Ted Williams, whose mother was a Mexican and who denied his Latino heritage all his life, Marilyn never disavowed her Mexican origins. But due to the pressures and demands put on her by Hollywood to maintain an All-American girl image, she kept them to herself to sustain her career.

Marilyn Reclaims Her Mexican Connection

At the height of her fabulous movie career, Marilyn formed her own production company, Marilyn Monroe Productions (MMP) and at this point no longer felt constrained by Hollywood to hide her Latina pride.

She spent a lot of time in Mexico; Ciudad Juarez, Mexico City, Acapulco and Baja California. There to the horror of Hollywood press agents and publicists Marilyn could be openly and publicly seen being serenaded by mariachi bands, eating tacos, climbing to the top of ancient Mayan pyramids, speaking Spanish in public and even becoming romantically involved with Mexican writer/producer, José Bolaños.

Marilyn bought and decorated her house with Mexican mahogany furniture. She even had her picture taken wearing a China Poblana traditional Mexican outfit  She was also fond of Mexican sweaters. One of the last photos of Marilyn is of her walking on the beach wearing her Mexican sweater. That sweater was found draped over her Mexican furniture the day of her death.

Her Safe Harbor?

There is no question the camera adored Marilyn Monroe. She was uniquely photogenic, sensual, vulnerable, fragile and beautiful. It was those qualities Hollywood packaged and branded into a myth; a product, a persona called Marilyn Monroe they could market to a White majority movie audience. The demands and expectations put on her to maintain this public façade proved painful to her already damaged psyche resulting from a troubled childhood and going from one foster home to another. Clinging to and embracing her Mexican heritage must have been like a safe harbor for Marilyn Monroe. It was a place where she could be a free spirit Latina and bask in the warmth and comfort of her Mexican culture and birthright.

In what must be an unintentional ironic twist of fate, the upcoming NC-17 rated Netflix biopic of Monroe entitled, Blonde, has rising Latina superstar, Ana de Armas (Knives Out, No Time to Die) in the lead role as the legendary Blonde Bombshell. The movie is based on the highly fictionalized and sensationalized account of Marilyn’s life in a novel by Joyce Carol Oates.

Could it be the producers of Blonde are sending a subliminal message to the audience of Marilyn’s Hispanic heritage by casting Armas, in the role of Marilyn Monroe? Or could it possibly be a guilt-driven casting Freudian slip in an attempt to subconsciously atone for suppressing the Mexican side of Marilyn she always honored but was not allowed to celebrate by the Hollywood establishment?

Regardless, somewhere in her eternal safe harbor, Norma Jean Mortensen must be flashing that million-dollar smile knowing at long last a Latina star is giving life to the truth of “La Mexicana”, Marilyn Monroe.

Blonde is written and directed by Andrew Dominik. The cast is led by Armas and features Bobby Cannavale, Adrien Brody, Julianne Nicholson, Xavier Samuel and Evan Williams.

Blonde, starring Ana de Armas, premieres on Netflix on September 23^rd.  

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De Armas is transformed into the “Blond Bombshell” aka Marilyn Monroe with the help of make-up and true to life wardrobe. She has got the look down and strikingly resembles the iconic movie star, attitude and all.

From orphan to pin-up model to famous Hollywood star, that is the story that Blonde will tell.  A bit of fiction and fact, the life of one of the most marketable Hollywood stars of her time, the film is 

Directed by Andrew Dominik, and based on the bestselling novel by Joyce Carol Oates. 
Blonde, set for a September 23 release on Netflix, artfully explores the tension between her public and private life as the striking and mysterious

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by Roberto Leal

Imagine a Chicano Pillsbury Doughboy comic made from aromatic masa fina para tortillas rather than refined white flour. Imagine this “muchacho” echoed masa wearing short pants and a gaudy Hawaiian shirt topped off with a small cap. Now further imagine this big lovable hunk of Latino performing in packed stadiums before thousands of adoring loyal fans enjoying his “clean” humor and seemingly endless character voices and impressions that would put Mel Blanc to shame. Imagine all that and voila! you have Gabriel “Fluffy” Iglesias, the chuckling, cherubic comedian whose star is rising higher and faster than a NASA rocket into The Outer Limits.

Fluffy’s Power Source

Iglesias recently became the first comedian in history to sell out Dodger Stadium for a May stand-up comedy concert that will be turned into a Netflix special joining his other two Netflix specials currently streaming on Netflix. But this should come as no surprise. Iglesias has been selling out concert venues of all sizes for years. It has been facetiously speculated by comic historians that Fluffy’s court jester ancestors routinely sold-out Greek amphitheaters and the Roman Coliseum.

Iglesias was born in San Diego but grew up in Long Beach. “My comedy heroes and influencers were Eddie Murphy, Robin Williams, Paul Rodriguez and Billy Crystal,” says Iglesias. He told his first joke when he was ten years old in a school talent show.

According to Iglesias, everything changed for him in 1997at a comedy club. “I wasn’t supposed to go up on stage. They had a show, and the emcee did not show up,” he recalls, “A friend of mine was friends with the promoter. My buddy reminded me I always wanted to do stand-up and convinced me to emcee the show.” That impromptu gig resulted in Iglesias getting booked to do stand-up in other comedy clubs. And the rest, as they say, is comedy legend history.

While Fluffy’s comedy routine has its roots in his Hispanic heritage and background it has proven to have universal crossover appeal to a wide diverse audience. As a result, Iglesias is now one of America’s most successful stand-up comedians performing at sold-out concerts around the world. He is also one of the most-watched comedians on YouTube with almost a billion views and has over 25 million fans across social media.

The Sweet Smell of Success

Iglesias has more irons in the fire than an overworked village blacksmith. His TV series, Mr. Iglesias (2019-2020), is still streaming on Netflix and is still hip and funny. His two comedy specials, Gabriel Iglesias: I’m Sorry for What I Said When I Was Hungry and Gabriel “Fluffy” Iglesias: One Show Fits All, are still showing strong on Netflix. A third comedy special titled A Comedy Event scheduled to be taped in San Antonio will also be streaming on Netflix.

He also has several other projects in development:

I, Chihuahua:  No, I, Chihuahua is not a Mexican pooch spoof of Mickey Spillane’s detective novel, I, the Jury. This Netflix animated feature film, which will be directed by Jorge Gutiérrez (Maya and the Three, The Book of Life) will star Iglesias as Chacho, a masked luchador Chihuahua who becomes Luchcho when he puts on the Lucha Libre mask. Chacho goes on a hilarious, action-packed adventure fighting for family and home. I, Chihuahua is writer and director Gutiérrez’s affectionate Valentine to the popular Mexican art and sport of Lucha Libre.

Hungry:  Iglesias joins the NBC comedy pilot and is set as a regular cast member. James Burrows (Cheers, Friends, Will & Grace) will direct NBC’s multi-camera comedy pilot which will be executive produced by Demi Lovato (Camp Rock, Sonny with a Chance). Hungry is about a bunch of friends who belong to a food issues support group. They help each other find love, success, and the perfect snack in the fridge.

Space Jam: A New Legacy: Iglesias will do the voice of Speedy Gonzalez. Ironically, it was Mel Blanc, the  Warner Bros. voice actor legend (Daffy Duck, Porky Pig, Bugs Bunny) who first did the voice of Speedy Gonzalez. Like Blanc, Iglesias has a multitude of voice characters he uses in his stand-up routine and could easily do all the voices in this movie.

What’s left for Fluffy to do? He has already appeared in several movies, lent his talented voice to many animated features and is the undisputed king of large stadium comedy concerts. He could host the Oscars, but he would have to find a tux with short pants. Surely seeing a floating Fluffy balloon character in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade can’t be too far behind.

Success Through Laughter

Forbes Magazine ranks Iglesias as one of the top ten highest-earning comedians of all time. He has proven himself to be a skillful businessman and entrepreneur with several highly profitable online stores selling a huge variety of merchandise. Gabriel “Fluffy” Iglesias has turned that one joke he told as a ten-year-old kid at a school talent show into a multi-million-dollar entertainment empire. “Fluffy” is no longer just a nickname, it’s a global brand name. But his main product is still laughter and we, his worldwide audience, are the richer for it.

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A new adult-friendly animated series has arrived on Netflix that stands out for mixing a variety of animation styles and paying tribute to 1990s cartoons. The Guardians of Justice is directed by two Spaniards, brothers Luis and Enol Junquera.

The show landed quietly on the streamer with the story of a group of superheroes trying to prevent nuclear war when an unfathomable tragedy alters the power balance in the world. The show was screened at the Cannes International Series Festival in France last year. 

In the first season, an alien superhero, Marvelous Man, helped to end WWIII in a single day and kept peace on Earth for four decades. But an unforeseeable tragedy plunges the globe into chaos, making the future uncertain. It’s up to two Guardians, Marvelous Man’s bitter, violent lieutenant Knight Hawk and idealistic do-gooder Speed, to stop atomic Armageddon.  

The show is rated TV-MA for mature audiences and may not be suitable for ages 17 and under due to language, violence and other adult situations.

Starring in the show are Denise Richards (Love Actually), Derek Mears (Swamp Thing), Hal Ozsan (What Would Diplo Do?), Andy Milonakis (Waiting…), Sharni Vinson (You’re Next) and former pro-wrestler Dallas Page (The Devil’s Rejects).

The Guardians of Justice was created and executive produced by Adi Shankar, an Indian-American executive producer of films led by Hollywood stars like The Grey with Liam Neeson, Killing Them Softly with Brad Pitt, Dredd with Karl Urban and Lone Survivor with Mark Whalberg. Among Shankar’s most recent executive-produced projects is Castlevania, another Netflix animated series that ran from 2017 through 2021 and starred Richard Armitage, James Callis and Alejandra Reynoso. 

The Guardians of Justice marks Shankar’s TV directorial debut.

The Junquera brothers, who serve also as animators, joined Shankar for the Netflix series about six years ago working from Asturias, according to Enol Junquera. The siblings got on board the project through their studio company Angry Metal. “For the first Guardians of Justice scene we made, Adi Shankar asked us to develop a romantic date between superheroes and we came to the most special dating (sic) for Awesome Man and Speed as possible, fighting an evil Ciber-Care Bear,” state the Junqueras on their company website.

The Spanish filmmakers say Angry Metal is an “innovative, award-winning, auteur-driven, hand-drawn (sic) animation studio based in Spain that specializes in adult-oriented animation.” They describe their signature style as a “cross-pollination of our native European sensibilities with Japanese anime, Saturday Morning Cartoons, nostalgic gaming, and American live-action cinema influences.” They add, “ We are allergic to interchangeable assembly-line productions, so each of our works are designed to have a unique artistic identity.” 

The Junqueras and Shankar have collaborated in other animated projects in the past, including the miniseries Judge Dredd: Superfiend and the short film The End of Pokémon, both of which the Spanish brothers directed and wrote.

The Junqueras’ artistic vision contributes to The Guardians of Justices’ unique mix of live action with traditional animation, claymation–a stop-animation technique using clay or plasticine, cut-out paper animation and 8-bit video game footage.

The first season of the Netflix series consists of seven episodes, all of which are now available for streaming.

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