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Fans of Netflix’s drug trade drama Narcos have spent the last three seasons watching the stories of Pablo Escobar and the Cali Cartel, but things are going to be very different in the upcoming fourth season. The show is set to undergo a minor reboot as it shifts its focus to Mexico and the rise of the Guadalajara Cartel, led by Félix Gallardo. Diego Luna is playing the drug kingpin, and he said the series made it clear to him that Donald Trump’s proposed wall at the U.S.-Mexico border is not an effective solution to solving drug and immigration problems.
“A wall is not going to stop anything,” Luna recently told Variety. “They’ve put a rapid succession of drug dealers in jail, and that hasn’t stopped anything either because this is a system, a corrupt system that has seeped into every level of power on both sides of the border. I think that’s what the series says; that we have to work together towards a solution. It’s not them against us.”
Narcos: Mexico is set in the 1980s and follows Félix Gallardo (Luna) as he creates the biggest drug empire the country has ever seen. Michal Peña stars as DEA agent Kiki Camarena, who moves his family from California to Guadalajara and is assigned to investigate the cartel. The two characters’ fates become intertwined as their battle gives way to the modern drug trade at the U.S.-Mexico border.
“The beauty of this series is that hopefully it can trigger curiosity in audiences to go deeper and go research a little more,” Luna said about the new Narcos episodes. “To read about it, to see documentaries, to open the newspapers looking for clues about this situation and about our relations…While we are talking about this 5,000 [U.S.] military are going South to the border in Mexico, you know. So we do need to care about what’s happening in each other’s country because every decision we make is connected to the lives of others.”
Luna also shot down accusations in the Mexican press that Narcos will glorify the drug trade and make such leaders as Gallardo into figures of admiration. The actor said he understands where the fear came from, especially after the show’s trailer focused heavily on the elements of the drug trade in the new season, but Luna said it’s ultimately the opposite that is true of the series.
“After seeing the ten episodes the only thing that is clear to me is that I don’t want to belong to this world!” Luna said. “I don’t want to meet any of them, and wish I had no connection with them. It’s interesting to watch, and it’s also interesting to reflect on the past; to reflect how we got into the mess we are living in.”
“I respect every point of view, especially in Mexico where we are living the violence caused because of this,” Luna concluded. “The only thing I don’t respect is when I hear that we shouldn’t talk about this. To me that is very, very dangerous.”
Narcos: Mexico is available to stream in its entirety on Netflix starting November 16.
