Masked Vigilante ZORRO Getting Live-Action SERIES REBOOT from SECUOYA STUDIOS

Johnston McCulley was an American author, but his most enduring literary creation of Zorro, the masked vigilante swordsman of old Spanish California, has since been embraced by the Latin American community as a symbolic pop culture figure. There have been several Mexican films and even a telenovela produced by Telemundo in 2007. Not to mention, Zorro is also internationally known with productions featuring done in Europe and even Asia. While among the more recent big stories about Zorro were the 1998 and 2005 films starring Antonio Banderas (as a legacy character), there are plans to reboot the franchise currently in development, like this particular project.

Variety tells us that a new series based on Zorro is being developed by Secuoya Studios in Los Angeles. Tentatively titled “El Zorro” (literally “The Fox” in Spanish), the project was revealed by Secuoya president James Costos during an online presentation to the studio investors this past Thursday, January 28. To this end, Secuoya is collaborating with John Gertz of Zorro Productions Inc., which controls worldwide copyright and trademarks for the character, as well as Andy Kaplan and Jesus Torres, both formerly executives at Sony. Gertz also served as producer for the Banderas-led “Zorro” films from Sony/Tri-Star and Columbia Pictures.

Secuoya director of fiction David Martinez spoke of the wide appeal of Zorro during the presentation saying, “This is one of the biggest IPs, not only in the Spanish-speaking territories, but the world.” Scripts for the series have been written by Spanish screenwriter Carlos Portela, who worked on the 2017 Spanish comedy-drama streaming series “Velvet Colleccion” for Movistar+. Secuoya will take the lead in producing “El Zorro,” with Kaplan and Torres being joined as executive producers by Sergio Pizzolante, another Secuoya exec working from Miami.

No further details were given on “El Zorro,” such as its cast, or when and where it will premiere. This project by Secuoya is different from another “Zorro” production being developed by CBS Television Studios for NBC. Its executive producers include Robert Rodriguez (original slated director for 1998’s “The Mask of Zorro”), Sofia Vergara and Alfredo Barrios Jr., and will be a legacy series set in the modern day with a female descendant of original Zorro Diego de la Vega.

Image from Comic Book Resources