Money Heist Berlin just got a release window. In an announcement teaser starring returning actor Pedro Alonso, Netflix revealed that the spin-off series will land this December. Set before the events of the cult favourite mainline show, Berlin serves as an origin story of sorts, which follows the iconic jewel thief Andrés de Fonollosa/ Berlin, as he constructs a series of heists across Europe, with an entirely new crew. Money Heist franchise creator Álex Pina returns to co-write the eight-episode-long project with David Oliva and David Barrocal. Both previously worked on Netflix’s Sky Rojo series.
The Berlin teaser builds upon the aforementioned premise of construction, with Berlin (Alonso) planning a jewel heist at an auction house. He can be seen messing around with a model of the area — placing paper models of the getaway car, decoys, and the security personnel, who will be guarding the giant safe. He is then seen examining the valued treasure, before getting distracted by the cutout of a mysterious woman in his model. The unnamed character is implied as Berlin’s love interest in the story. “This is going to be a trip throughout the golden years of the character. When he was stealing all over Europe, madly in love,” creator Pina said, during Netflix’s Tudum event last year (via Collider).
Previously, the studio unveiled Berlin’s new gang of characters, who assisted him in his venture, long before he got involved with the masked heist group from the mainline Money heist series. The new faces include Tristán Ulloa (Terminator: Dark Fate) as the philanthropic professor Damián, Michelle Jenner as the tech wiz Keila, Begoña Vargas as the unhinged Cameron, Julio Peña Fernández as the determined Roi, and Joel Sánchez who plays Bruce, a relentless man of action. Filming on Berlin began October 3 in Paris, with production expanding onto Madrid in the later weeks.
For the uninitiated, Berlin sacrificed himself in Money Heist season 2, leaving fans with many unanswered questions with regard to his character. Hopefully, this upcoming spin-off series sheds light on his sufferings with Helmer’s Myopathy, the muscle-weakening disease that had shortened his lifespan. While all this seems harsh, bear in mind that the character of Berlin was a racist and a misogynist — a trait even the actor Alonso and creator Pina acknowledged in the Netflix documentary Money Heist: The Phenomenon.
In an interview with Oprah Daily, Pina touched upon the idea of exploring more spin-offs in the Money Heist universe, as the mainline show ended with season 5 in 2021. “We do have many possibilities for some spinoffs, yes, and I think that’s thanks to the strong and powerful identities of the characters,” he said. “We’ve always looked for characters to have a very complex, layered design. So I think almost every character of Money Heist has a duality that we would like to see in a spinoff. We could watch any of them in other contexts.”
Berlin, the Money Heist spin-off series is slated for a December release on Netflix.
