EXCLUSIVE:Disney+ has placed a big bet on daily drama with the launch ofReturn to Las Sabinas.
The remaining 65 parts will be stripped throughout the week with new eps released weekday mornings.
The [daily drama] model itself is not new.
‘Return to Las Sabinas’, Disney+’s daily drama series launched todayDisney+
Having launched after its SVOD peers in Spain, Disney+ needed content that would set it apart.
We wanted to take something that the audience was accustomed to and put it in an unexpected place.
The challenge for the prodco this time was making something that felt premium but that stretched across 70 episodes.
Disney+
The show also had twice as long in post as a regular daily drama.
A seasoned team was assembled.
Director Frades worked onPoblenou, one of the first ever daily dramas on Spanish TV some 30 years ago.
Creator and showrunner Carillo is similarly experienced, with writing credits onDreams of Libertyand many other series.
The location shoots and elongated schedule giveReturn to Las Sabinasa different flavor to other daily dramas, Carillo says.
The story required all this landscape and these locations.
Its not what we are used to with daily shows in Spain.
We had more time we spent almost two years writing.
This unexpected return means a reunion with the life and loves that they had tried to forget.
The series is about forgiveness and second chances.
Frades wanted to conjure a sense of memories past for parts of the story.
Everything is so pure, but something happens that changes everything [in the series].
Thats the tragedy in our story.
Theres a very beautiful first love, but we have a tragedy that make this break apart.
Betting on Daily Drama
Return to Las Sabinaswasfirst announcedat a Deadline-moderated session at Series Mania.
It continuedcreating industry buzzat Iberseries & Industria Platina in Madrid last week.
The new Disney+ new show will drop around the world.
Obviously, Fabregas is angling for a local success that goes global.
Within that there is a specific ambition to forge a meaningful Spain-Latin America connection.
We share the same language, but still there is not a show that really works in both markets.
I would love to have one that speaks to all the Latin audiences, she says.
The Disney+ Spain programming boss says the show is not an experiment.
I would say its a bet, and lets see if we win, she notes.
It is a bet because we havent done it yet, not us or not the other streamers.
Were programming against other streamers.
Could it change the rules?
Maybe in five years all the streamers will have programming like this, says Fabregas.
