Narcos nearly included Griselda Blanco

Before Netflix series Griselda, there was Narcos – but according to the executive producer, Blanco nearly could have been in the latter series.

January sees the arrival of Griselda on Netflix, following the savvy and ambitious Colombian businesswoman Griselda Blanco creating one of the most profitable cartels in history.

The series comes from the same executive producers as Narcos and Narcos Mexico – both of which have been big hits in recent years.

In the research stages of creating the latter series, there were plans to potentially include Griselda Blanco in Narcos – but according to the creative team, it just wasn’t meant to be.

Narcos creators nearly included Griselda Blanco

Speaking at a recent press conference, executive producer of Griselda, Eric Newman, revealed that his best-known show, Narcos, nearly included the female Colombian drug lord.

Newman served as the writer and executive producer of Narcos, which followed the life of Pablo Escobar from the late 1970s, when he first began manufacturing cocaine, to July 1992. The show is told from the perspective of Steve Murphy, an American DEA agent working in Colombia. Narcos ran from 2015-2017.

“We knew about her,” Newman explained about creating Narcos. “She figures prominently in the history of the Medellín cartel. But she is a true anomaly in that there has never been a woman who achieved that level of prominence in any drug cartel ever.”

The Medellín cartel was Pablo Esobar’s main group for running drugs, first founded back in 1976. Though never officially confirmed, it’s thought that Griselda Blanco had strong ties to the cartel. At the very least, they would have been her fiercest rivals.

“Obviously, that immediately piqued our interest,” Newman continued. “But we found with Narcos – the way we tell that story and what that show is about – to try to fit the Griselda story into Narcos just seemed like it wouldn’t do it justice.

“When Sofia [Vergara] called me and said she wanted to play Griselda, it seemed like an irresistible opportunity to tell the story as its own thing.”

Unlike Narcos, which is set in Colombia, Griselda flips the script and follows Blanco in the height of her drug reign in Miami in the 1980s.

“There’s nothing more terrifying to a narco than being extradited to America,” added series director Andrés Baiz. “[Griselda] was already there doing the job. She wasn’t taking credit for things. As a woman, I think she knew that it would be dangerous for her.”

Unlike Narcos, Griselda is made up of a largely Colombian cast and crew, with Modern Family star Sofia Vergara leading the charge.

“I grew up in Colombia during that era – the 70s, the 80s, the 90s – where the narco traffic unfortunately was a big part of our lives,” Vergara explained. “When Griselda was still alive, that really stopped me [planning the series] because I didn’t want it to create a story where there was a happy ending.”