While Modern Family vet Sofia Vergara hasn’t yet returned to TV for any big roles in scripted series, the Emmy-nominated actress certainly hasn’t been absent from the small screen across 2020 and 2021. After saying goodbye to the star-making role of Gloria Delgado-Pritchett, Vergara joined the judges table over on NBC’s America’s Got Talent for its most recent two seasons, but she’s now set to return to acting for a new Netflix series from the creative team behind the critically acclaimed Narcos franchise.
That’s right, Sofia Vergara is finally getting her shot at making a passion project about the notorious drug queenpin Griselda Blanco, more casually known by the monikers “Cocaine Godmother,” which sounds like a badass band, and the “Black Widow.” Understandably, given the MCU film of the same name, the Netflix show won’t be called Black Widow, but rather Griselda.
The limited series will chronicle the life and story of the Colombian drug trafficker, who rose from a confident businesswoman to become one of the most successful cartel leaders in the world. With a blend of charisma, shocking brutality and the backbone that only a mother can boast, Griselda Blanco knew how to balance work and family like few others in history, and it will be interesting to see Sofia Vergara dig more into her dramatic chops for the role. Not to mention how fun it should be to watch her go buck on whoever earns her ire. I’d imagine she’ll find ways to look as alluring as possible as well.
Here’s what Sofia Vergara had to say about the project, according to Variety.
Griselda Blanco was a larger-than-life character whose ruthless but ingenious tactics allowed her to rule a billion dollar empire years before many of the most notorious male kingpins we know so much about. We are thrilled to have found the perfect partners in Eric, Andrés and Netflix to help us bring this story of her life to the screen.
The names she mentioned are Eric Newman and Andrés Baiz, who will be executive producers on Griselda along with Carlo Bernard and Doug Miro. The latter two are the co-creators of Netflix’s Narcos and its spinoff Narcos: Mexico, while Newman and Baiz were also part of that creative team as EPs, while Baiz also directed a variety of episodes across both series. And considering Baiz will be directing all six episodes of Griselda, it’s fair to say there might be some similarities between the two shows. That said, despite previous rumors that the in-development series would be set in the same universe as Narcos, that is not the case.
Former Justified and Empire writer/EP Ingrid Escajeda will serve as the writer and showrunner for Griselda, and will be joined as an EP by Sofia Vergara herself. Escajeda isn’t the first person to tackle this story in recent years, either. Catherine Zeta-Jones portrayed Blanco in the 2017 feature Cocaine Godmother, while Jennifer Lopez has long been developing a feature project titled The Godmother.
It’s not clear just yet when streaming audiences can expect to see Griselda premiering, but it will likely pop up in late 2022 or early 2023, depending on when filming begins. In the meantime, there are still lots of great Netflix original series yet to debut in 2021 (not to mention the movie side of things). And be sure to check out what Vergara’s co-star Sarah Hyland is up to next.
