‘Narcos’ Season 4: Your First Look at the Mexican Cartels

Narcos is saying adiós to Colombia and holla to Mexico. Ahead of its Season 4 premiere later this year, Netflix has revealed the first look photos of Narcos‘ latest season, which will focus on the Guadalajara Cartel. I already can’t wait.

Rebranded as Narcos: Mexico, this new season will explore trafficking in the country during a time when the drug trade was a disorganized confederation of independent growers and dealers. According to a press release from Netflix, this latest season will focus on Guadalajara Cartel in the 1980s. This season will follow Félix Gallardo (Diego Luna) as he tries to unify the traffickers and build his empire. The real Gallardo, also known as El Padrino, eventually gained control over almost all of Mexico’s drug trade and was connected to the Cali Cartel, so yeah. He was a bad guy.

El Padrino’s lawful foe this season will be DEA agent Kiki Camarena (Michael Peña). Much like Boyd Holbrook’s character in Seasons 1 and 2, Camarena moves his family to Mexico for his new position. After gaining some intel, he soon gets caught up in Gallardo’s web, underestimating the drug lord’s remarkable system. Little does Camarena know of the horrors he’s about to face and how his actions will impact history for decades to come. 

This isn’t the first time Narcos has drastically rewrote its narrative. After spending two seasons documenting the rise and fall of Pablo Escobar and the Medellín Cartel, Season 2 dropped Escobar completely and instead switched to the Cali Cartel. DEA agent Javier Peña (Pedro Pascal) was the only connective tissue between those first seasons and Season 3, and now even he’s gone.

Season 3 ended with Pascal’s Peña wondering if he should go to Mexico or retire from the cartel-busting game. The finale implied Peña would be leaving the show, but my heart says that Pascal needs more Netflix screen time. The real Peña wasn’t even involved in the Cali cartel, so we can’t even look to history to tell us whether or not we’re going to get a Season 4 surprise appearance.

But as much as I will miss Peña’s wonderful face, Narcos probably doesn’t need him. This new season already has its Cali connection, José María Yazpik‘s Amado Carrillo Fuentes. Amado wasn’t a leader of the Cali cartel but he was a drug-smuggling close friend. He heads the Juárez Cartel in Mexico, which probably means we can expect some cartel rivalry in the new season of Narcos.

Despite Season 4’s many changes, I feel confident it’s still going to work. Every season of this series has moved further away from Season 1’s “American lectures us about drug lords” format. Season 3 of the series was practically a limited series as it relied on completely new characters. It was also one of the strongest seasons of the show. As long as Narcos has drug traffickers and high stakes, the historical drama has proven it can work. If Narcos: Mexico is going to be anything like its gut-wrenching Cali season, I say bring it on.

Stream Narcos on Netflix