Netflix seeks 'Money Heist' successor in Spanish hub
In a sprawling studio on the outskirts of Madrid buzzing with TV industry talent, Netflix is fusing traditional storytelling with cutting-edge technology to craft a potential successor to its global hit Money Heist.
The dystopian series Billionaires’ Bunker, set to premiere Friday, unfolds in a massive underground fortress equipped with gyms, gardens, and a high-end restaurant. It marks Netflix’s latest Spanish superproduction, aiming to replicate the global phenomenon of Money Heist, which followed a clever group of robbers targeting the Spanish national mint and became the platform’s first non-English-language worldwide hit in 2017.
Migue Amoedo, visual artistic director of Billionaires’ Bunker, described Money Heist as “the turning point of the industry,” noting that the team now had “the recipe” for repeating its success. Since 2017, nearly 1,000 Netflix films and series have been shot in Spain, underscoring the country’s growing prominence as a hub for audiovisual production.
Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos revealed that Spanish content alone generated over five billion hours of viewing in 2024. Screenwriters Alex Pina and Esther Martinez Lobato, creators of Money Heist, its spin-off Berlin, and Sky Rojo, highlight how local stories can resonate globally. Pina said he was “always surprised by the huge power of how an exotic local story can be universal at the same time,” adding that Netflix required no adjustments to the shows’ core narrative or DNA. Victor Marti, head of production at the Madrid studio, emphasized the value of sharing “local storytelling with a global audience.”
Netflix entered the Spanish market in 2015 and launched its first non-U.S. studios in Madrid’s northern suburbs in 2019, establishing a major European production hub. In June, the company pledged over one billion euros ($1.2 billion) for Spanish productions through 2029.
The Tres Cantos studio blends traditional sets with advanced technology, including digital plateaus within its 22,000-square-metre (236,000-square-foot) facility. A massive 30-metre-long, six-metre-high hangar set brings static or animated images to life—from cloudscapes and skyscrapers to country roads.
“We have a little bit of everything here to shoot and produce… we are testing many technologies for the first time,” said Marti. Amoedo added that this technology helps “reduce the gap” between Spanish and European cinema and the U.S., noting that roughly 80 percent of Billionaires’ Bunker was filmed indoors.
