Money Heist


Money Heist is a Spanish heist crime drama television series created by Álex Pina. The series traces two long-prepared heists led by the Professor, one on the Royal Mint of Spain, and one on the Bank of Spain, told from the perspective of one of the robbers, Tokyo. The story is told in a real-time-like fashion and relies on an unreliable narrator, flashbacks, time-jumps, and hidden character motivations for complexity.
The series was initially intended as a two-part limited series. It had its original run of 15 episodes on Spanish network Antena 3 from 2 May 2017 through 23 November 2017. Netflix acquired global streaming rights in late 2017. It re-cut the series into 22 shorter episodes and released them worldwide, beginning with the first part on 20 December 2017, followed by the second part on 6 April 2018. In April 2018, Netflix renewed the series with a significantly increased budget for 16 new episodes total. Part 3, with eight episodes, was released on 19 July 2019. Part 4, also with eight episodes, was released on 3 April 2020. A documentary involving the producers and the cast premiered on Netflix the same day, titled Money Heist: The Phenomenon. In July 2020, Netflix renewed the show for a fifth and final part, which was released in two five-episode volumes, on 3 September and 3 December 2021, respectively.
Similar to Money Heist: The Phenomenon, a two-part documentary involving the producers and cast premiered on Netflix the same day, titled Money Heist: From Tokyo to Berlin. The series was filmed in Madrid, Spain. Significant portions were also filmed in Panama, Thailand, Italy, Denmark and in Portugal. A South Korean remake set in an alternate universe, Money Heist: Korea – Joint Economic Area, was released in two parts on 24 June and 9 December 2022 respectively, while a direct spin-off, Berlin, with Pedro Alonso, Itziar Ituño, and Najwa Nimri reprising their roles, was released on 29 December 2023, forming a shared universe.
The series received several awards including the International Emmy Award for Best Drama Series at the 46th International Emmy Awards, as well as critical acclaim for its sophisticated plot, interpersonal dramas, direction, and for trying to innovate Spanish television. The Italian anti-fascist song "Bella ciao", which plays multiple times throughout the series, became a summer hit across Europe in 2018. By that year, the series was the most-watched non-English-language series and one of the most-watched series overall on Netflix, having particular resonance with viewers from Mediterranean Europe and the Latin American regions.

Premise

Set in Madrid, a mysterious man known as the "Professor" recruits a group of eight people, who choose city names as their aliases for anonymity, to carry out an ambitious plan that involves entering the Royal Mint of Spain, and escaping with €984 million. After taking 67 people hostage inside the Mint, the team plans to remain inside for 11 days to print the money as they deal with elite police forces. In the events following the initial heist, the group members are forced out of hiding and prepare for a second heist, with some additional members, this time aiming to escape with gold from the Bank of Spain and rescuing an old friend and member of the heist, as they again deal with hostages and police forces.

Cast and characters

Main

Recurring

  • Roberto García Ruiz as Dimitri Mostovói / Radko Dragić : a veteran Serbian soldier and Helsinki's cousin
  • Fernando Soto as Ángel Rubio : a deputy inspector and Raquel's second-in-command
  • Juan Fernández as Colonel Alfonso Prieto : a member of the Spanish Intelligence who oversees Raquel's work on the case
  • Anna Gras as Mercedes Colmenar : Alison's teacher and one of the hostages in the Mint
  • Fran Morcillo as Pablo Ruiz : Alison's schoolmate and one of the hostages in the Mint
  • Clara Alvarado as Ariadna Cascales : one of the hostages who works in the Mint and seduces Berlin
  • Mario de la Rosa as Suárez: the chief of the Grupo Especial de Operaciones
  • Miquel García Borda as Alberto Vicuña : Raquel's ex-husband and a forensic examiner
  • Naia Guz as Paula Vicuña Murillo : Raquel and Alberto's daughter
  • José Manuel Poga as César Gandía : chief of security for the Bank of Spain who escapes from hostage and causes havoc for the group
  • Antonio Romero as Benito Antoñanzas : an assistant to Colonel Luis Tamayo, who is persuaded by the Professor to do tasks for him
  • Diana Gómez as Tatiana : the fifth ex-wife of Berlin who is a professional pianist and thief
  • Pep Munné as Mario Urbaneja : the governor of the Bank of Spain
  • Olalla Hernández as Amanda : the Secretary to the governor of the Bank of Spain and hostage who Arturo rapes
  • Mari Carmen Sánchez as Paquita : a hostage in the Bank of Spain and a nurse who tends to Nairobi while she recovers
  • Carlos Suárez as Miguel Fernández : a nervous hostage in the Bank of Spain
  • Ahikar Azcona as Matías Caño : a member of the group who largely guards the hostages in the Bank of Spain
  • Ramón Agirre as Benjamín Martinez : father of Manila who aids the Professor in his plan
  • Antonio García Ferreras as himself : a journalist
  • José Manuel Seda as Sagasta : leader of the army detail inside the bank
  • Patrick Criado as Rafael : Berlin's son and Professor's nephew
  • Miguel Ángel Silvestre : René, Tokyo's boyfriend before working with the Professor
  • Alberto Amarilla as Ramiro : member of Sagasta's Special Forces
  • Jennifer Miranda as Arteche : member of Sagasta's Special Forces
  • Ajay Jethi as Shakir : the lead Pakistani hacker that was hired by the Professor during the Bank of Spain robbery

    Production

Conception and writing

The series was conceived by screenwriter Álex Pina and director Jesús Colmenar during their years of collaboration since 2008. After finishing their work on the Spanish prison drama Locked Up, they left Globomedia to set up their own production company, named Vancouver Media, in 2016. For their first project, they considered either filming a comedy or developing a heist story for television, with the latter having never been attempted before on Spanish television. Along with former Locked Up colleagues, they developed Money Heist as a passion project to try new things without outside interference. Pina was firm about making it a limited series, feeling that dilution had become a problem for his previous productions.
Initially entitled Los Desahuciados in the conception phase, the series was developed to subvert heist conventions and combine elements of the action genre, thrillers and surrealism, while still being credible. Pina saw an advantage over typical heist films in that character development could span a considerably longer narrative story arc. Characters were to be shown from multiple sides to break the viewers' preconceptions of villainy and retain their interest throughout the show. Key aspects of the planned storyline were written down at the beginning, while the finer story beats were developed incrementally to not overwhelm the writers. Writer Javier Gómez Santander compared the writing process to the Professor's way of thinking, "going around, writing down options, consulting engineers whom you cannot tell why you ask them that," but noted that fiction allowed the police to be written dumber when necessary.
The beginning of filming was set for January 2017, allowing for five months of pre-production. The narrative was split into two parts for financial considerations. The robbers' city-based code names, which Spanish newspaper ABC compared to the colour-based code names in Quentin Tarantino's 1992 heist film Reservoir Dogs, were chosen at random in the first part, although places with high viewership resonance were also taken into account for the new robbers' code names in part 3. The first five lines of the pilot script took a month to write, as the writers were unable to make the Professor or Moscow work as the narrator. Ultimately, Tokyo was chosen as the narrator. Flashbacks and time-jumps increased the narrative complexity and made the story more fluid for the audience. The pilot episode required over 50 script versions until the producers were satisfied. Later scripts would be finished once per week to keep up with filming.

Casting

Casting took place late in February 2016, spanning more than two months. The characters were not fully fleshed out at the beginning of this process, and took shape based on the actors' performances. Casting directors Eva Leira and Yolanda Serrano were looking for actors with the ability to play empathetic robbers with believable love and family connections. Antena 3 announced the ensemble cast in March 2017 and released audition excerpts of most cast actors in the series' aftershow Tercer Grado and on their website.
The Professor was designed as a charismatic yet shy villain who could convince the robbers to follow him and make the audience sympathetic to the robbers' resistance against the powerful banks. However, developing the Professor's role proved difficult, as the character did not follow archetypal conventions and the producers were uncertain about his degree of brilliance. While the producers found his Salva personality early on, they were originally looking for a 50-year-old Harvard professor type with the looks of Spanish actor José Coronado. The role was proposed to Javier Gutiérrez, but he was already committed to starring in the film Campeones. Meanwhile, the casting directors advocated for Álvaro Morte, whom they knew from their collaboration on the long-running Spanish soap opera El secreto de Puente Viejo, even though his prime-time television experience was limited at that point. Going through the full casting process and approaching the role through external analysis rather than personal experience, Morte described the professor as "a tremendous box of surprises" that "end up shaping this character because he never ceases to generate uncertainty," making it unclear for the audience if the character is good or bad. The producers also found that his appearance of a primary school teacher gave the character more credibility.
Pedro Alonso was cast to play Berlin, whom La Voz de Galicia would later characterize as a "cold, hypnotic, sophisticated and disturbing character, an inveterate macho with serious empathy problems, a white-collar thief who despises his colleagues and considers them inferior." The actor's portrayal of the character was inspired by a chance encounter Alonso had the day before receiving his audition script, with "an intelligent person" who was "provocative or even manipulative" to him. Alonso saw high observation skills and an unusual understanding of his surroundings in Berlin, resulting in unconventional and unpredictable character behaviour. Similarities between Berlin and Najwa Nimri's character Zulema in Pina's TV series Locked Up were unintentional. The family connection between the Professor and Berlin was not in the original script, but was built into the characters' backstory at the end of part 1 after Morte and Alonso had repeatedly proposed to do so.
The producers found the protagonist and narrator, Tokyo, among the hardest characters to develop, as they were originally looking for an older actress to play the character who had nothing to lose before meeting the Professor. Úrsula Corberó eventually landed the role for bringing a playful energy to the table; her voice was heavily factored in during casting, as she was the first voice the audience hears in the show. Jaime Lorente developed Denver's hallmark laughter during the casting process. Two cast actors had appeared in previous TV series by Álex Pina: Paco Tous had starred in the 2005 TV series Los hombres de Paco, and Alba Flores had starred in Locked Up. Flores was asked to play Nairobi without audition when Pina realised late in the conception phase that the show needed another female gang member. For the role opposite to the robbers, Itziar Ituño was cast to play Inspector Raquel Murillo, whom Ituño described as a "strong and powerful woman in a world of men, but also sensitive in her private life". She took inspiration from The Silence of the Lambs character Clarice Starling, an FBI student with a messy family life who develops sympathies for a criminal.
The actors learned of the show's renewal by Netflix before the producers contacted them to return. In October 2018, Netflix announced the cast of part 3; the returning main cast included Pedro Alonso, raising speculation about his role in part 3. Among the new cast members were Argentine actor Rodrigo de la Serna, who saw a possible connection between his character's name and the Argentine football legend Martín Palermo, and Locked Up star Najwa Nimri. Cameo appearance scenes of Brazilian football star, and fan of the series, Neymar, as a monk were filmed for part 3, but were excluded from the stream without repercussions to the narrative until judicial charges against him had been dropped in late August 2019. A small appearance by Spanish actress Belén Cuesta in two episodes of part 3 raised fan and media speculation about her role in part 4.