Four years after the success of the series the cathedral of the sea , arrives The heirs of the earth (Netflix, from April 15). Also in 2016, Ildefonso Falcone published the homonymous novel sequel to his previous success, that construction of the Barcelona church that served as a stage and an excuse to talk about medieval Spain from the point of view of those who worked it, suffered and tried to escape its own laws and principles.
"When we made and premiered The Cathedral of the Sea we thought that it would end there, we did not know that Falcone was already working on the second part," he explains. Jordi Frades, director of the two series and director of the Diagonal TV production company that bought the rights to both novels.
Rodolfo Sancho is Bernat Estanyol, son of Arnau, friend of Hugo.
Of course, with the second and after the success, first national and then international, of La Catedral del Mar, things went a little faster. Four years since the publication of the book may seem like a lot, but with a pandemic in between and the complication of such a production, it is an achievement compared to the challenges that had to be overcome to carry out the first one.
For the readers of both novels, who number in the thousands, little news. “As in the first, the series is very faithful to the book. When you adapt a story with so many followers, that's how it should be”, says Frades. "Things are changed, others are summarized, because the book is very extensive and there is a political narrative and uses and customs that it is impossible to explain in a series and you are left with the main plot."
For those who only followed the series, which are also numbered in the thousands (and millions), The heirs of the earth starts three years after the end of The Cathedral of the Sea. That is, with the same protagonists, Arnau Estanyol (Aitor Luna) and Mar (Michelle Jenner) to already in the second chapter pass the baton to the new characters, the children of those.
The shipyards built in large cellars.
If in the first the action took place over 70 years, almost a century in the history of Barcelona. Here it will be 30 years, enough to see the new protagonist grow, Hugo Llor (David Solans/Yon Gonzalez) who goes from being Arnau's protégé to a winemaker. “He is prospering and taking a step back”, Frades explains. “He starts in the shipyards, then he goes out on the street, then he goes to live with Jews, he has his own land, then he goes to Barcelona, then he has a tavern…”.
A WALK THROUGHOUT CATALONIA
In that random coming and going, Hugo goes through many places. Spaces change a lot. Four months they were going around Catalonia looking for the most appropriate spaces to tell the story, which ended up shooting in 70% natural locations.
In that it does differ from La Catedral del Mar, which was largely filmed in Madrid. The heirs of the earth It has been shot all over Catalonia: Terrasa, Molins del Rei, Peralada, Monells, Peratallada, Santa Coloma, Badalona, Tortosa, in the old town of Girona, they filmed many scenes of streets, of the Jewish quarter... and much in Gothic Barcelona.
The Cathedral of the sea.
“Argumentally, there were a series of spaces that were easier to find in Catalonia, because there is more Romanesque”, Frades account. “We had to shoot more beach, there is a whole part of vineyards, because he makes wine, the city of Barcelona comes out more”.
Some spaces are repeated between the two series. Of course, the Cathedral of the Sea, Santa María del Mar, that other character that will remain. Also Tamarit beach, seen in the first chapter of The Heirs of the Earth.
Tamarit beach.
And some are very new, like the vineyards of Sant Sadurní d'Anoia, who pretend to be those that existed in those fourteenth and fifteenth centuries in Barcelona itself. "They were to the left of the Ramblas, where El Raval is, more or less, they went on foot to the vineyards, because everything around the Gothic was farmland," says Frades. One of the things that will surprise and learn the public of this epic medieval Catalonia.
medieval battles.