In a display of flawless timing, Netflix announced, on the very day the 2026 Princess of Asturias Awards are handed out in Oviedo, the start of filming for its adaptation of La Regenta. Let us recall that the novel Leopoldo Alas, ‘Clarín’, wrote in 1885 is set in Vetusta, a fictional and provincial city in northern Spain that represents a direct satire of the Asturian capital.
The streaming platform has announced that this adaptation of the classic of Spanish literature comes to life under the guidance of a creative team reinterpreting the book from a new female perspective. The lead name in the cast is Ester Expósito (Élite, El talento) in the role of Ana Ozores, La Regenta. The actress will portray this young woman trapped in an loveless marriage with Don Víctor Quintana, former ruler of the city and much older than her.
Beautiful and dissatisfied, Ana searches for a meaning to her life that her surroundings do not allow her to reach. Unwittingly, she becomes the center of two opposing obsessions. What begins as an intimate crisis becomes a silent clash between desire, faith and social power, where every gesture of La Regenta is observed, judged and used by those around her.
Netflix has also announced that the direction of the film will be under Mar Coll (Salve María) and the producer will be María Zamora (Romería). Completing the cast, among others, Oriol Pla (Yo, adicto) as Magistral Fermín de Pas; Vito Sanz (Por cien millones) as Víctor Quintanar; Borja Luna (Respira) as Álvaro Mesía; Clara Ingold (Poquita fe) as Petra and Carlos González (La bola negra) as Frígilis.
A jewel of Spanish literature
A fundamental work of Spanish narrative, La Regenta is a novel of dazzling modernity and inexhaustible reading. Through the central figure of Ana Ozores and a quintessential gallery of characters, Clarín presents the conflict inherent in trying to satisfy personal desires and longings within a gray and repressive context.
La Regenta, by Leopoldo Alas, ‘Clarín’.
Rich in narrative discoveries and finely tuned psychological analyses, La Regenta is also an ironic and relentless look by the author at the sleepy society of its time, represented in the provincial city of Vetusta. The plot, as complex as it is captivating, in which different strands of action, social environments, and interpersonal conflicts are interwoven, is deftly drawn into an unforgettable story.
In the words of the director of the new film, Mar Coll, “Clarín’s novel is so rich that dozens of different adaptations can be made from it, just as those preceding ours or those that will follow. I have tried to approach the material, humbly, from a radically personal perspective, as I always do. I have taken ownership of what in the novel has moved me most and that which explores the loneliness and the lovelessness of this regent, who tirelessly longs to give meaning to her life.”
The two previous adaptations of La Regenta
Until this new Netflix version, Clarín’s novel had seen two earlier adaptations, one in cinema and another in television. The first arrived in 1974, directed by Gonzalo Suárez. On that occasion the role of Ana Ozores was played by Emma Penella, with Keith Baxter, Nigel Davenport and Adolfo Marsillach completing the main cast. Shot when the book was considered very difficult to bring to the big screen, its producer, Emiliano Piedra, had pursued this project since it was proposed to Luis Buñuel and Orson Welles without success.
The next version of La Regenta arrived with a very ambitious Televisión Española production in 1995. This award-winning miniseries of three episodes was directed by Fernando Méndez-Leite and featured Aitana Sánchez-Gijón, Carmelo Gómez and Juan Luis Galiardo in the lead roles.
