When Netflix approached Argentinian director Alex García López to direct the adaptation of Gabriel García Márquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude, he knew it was a big responsibility. The novel is not only beloved but often required reading for high school students. García López first read it as a teenager and was immediately struck by its unique blend of magic, drama, violence, and emotion. He felt the story captured not just the essence of Colombia but all of Latin America. So, when Netflix reached out, he realized he needed to re-read the novel before committing to such a monumental task.
“I loved the book when I first read it, but it’s such an epic story. It’s not just creatively challenging; it has immense cultural significance,” García López told Entertainment Weekly. He re-read the book in both English and Spanish to fully immerse himself in it, though he admitted feeling a bit nervous. “If a project doesn’t scare you a little, it’s probably not worth doing,” he explained.
The novel tells the story of José Arcadio Buendía and Úrsula Iguarán, a couple who defy their families to marry and eventually establish the mystical city of Macondo by the sea. Over seven generations, the Buendía family experiences love, war, and magical events in this utopian city.
For García López, it was essential to get the blessing of the García Márquez family before moving forward. “They were adamant that the series had to be filmed in Colombia, with Colombian actors, and in Spanish,” he said. This was a direct response to past Hollywood adaptations of Latin American novels, which often whitewashed the stories. García Márquez had been unhappy with previous adaptations of his works, like Love in the Time of Cholera, and didn’t want the same thing to happen to One Hundred Years of Solitude.
In line with these wishes, Netflix held casting calls in Colombia, seeing over 10,000 hopefuls. The final cast ended up being 97% Colombian. García López believes the universal themes of the novel—love, loss, civil war, and family drama—are what made it a global success. However, he noted that the way the story is told, especially the magical realism, is deeply tied to the Caribbean region, where García Márquez grew up.
Magic realism plays a huge role in the novel. “To understand magic realism, you have to understand the cultural beliefs of the Caribbean, where people have a strong connection to spirituality and the unexplained,” García López said. He emphasized how the region’s African influence, dating back to the slave trade, shaped these beliefs.
García Márquez often said that the events in One Hundred Years of Solitude were rooted in his own life experiences. For García López, the challenge was to present magical moments in the story as though they were part of everyday life. “The magic in the novel isn’t treated as something extraordinary. It’s just there, like a bag of bones moving around the house that nobody pays attention to, almost like an annoying puppy,” he said with a smile. This balance between the mundane and the magical is what makes the story so captivating, and even funny at times.
The adaptation will be a 16-episode series, split into two seasons, with the first season premiering in December on Netflix.
