Filming begins

Netflix has announced a new film adaptation of La Regenta, the novel by Leopoldo Alas, known as Clarín, and says the shoot has already started. In a statement, the company said filming began on Friday, 23 October 2026. The novel was published in 1884 and 1885, and La Razón describes it as one of the central works of realism and naturalism in Spanish literature. This production is the third adaptation for the screen. The first was a 1974 film directed by Gonzalo Suárez, which La Razón says starred Emma Penella, and the second was a 1995 RTVE miniseries directed by Fernando Méndez-Leite and starring Aitana Sánchez-Gijón.

Cast and characters

Ester Expósito will play Ana Ozores, the protagonist, and eldiario.es says it will be her first role in front of the camera with a classic text. Expósito became internationally known as Carla Rosón in Élite, the Netflix series that El Mundo says turned her into a global phenomenon. Ana is trapped in a comfortable but empty marriage to Víctor Quintanar, and the story unfolds in Vetusta, a town where every move is watched and judged. Oriol Pla plays the Magistral Fermín de Pas, and eldiario.es describes him as the latest winner of the Premio Nacional de Teatro. The supporting cast includes Vito Sanz as Víctor Quintanar, Borja Luna as Álvaro Mesía, Clara Ingold as Petra, Carlos González as Frígilis, Ana Torrent as Doña Paula, Itsaso Arana as Visitación and Gonzalo de Castro as Ripamilán.

Behind the camera

Mar Coll, who directed Salve María, will direct the film, and La Razón says she co-wrote the screenplay with Anna R. Costa and Diego Vega. María Zamora will produce through Elastica Films, in what is the company's first collaboration with Netflix. El País lists Zamora's credits as Alcarràs (2022), Creatura (2023), O Corno (2023), Salve María and Romería (2025), and says she received the Premio Nacional de Cinematografía 2024. According to El País, Coll's earlier work includes the 2018 miniseries Matar al padre. El Mundo describes the two women behind the project as known for building stories around complex female characters.

The director's approach

Coll, in statements distributed by the platform, described the novel as a work open to many readings.

“The Clarín novel is so rich that dozens of different adaptations can be made from it, like those that precede ours or those that will follow.”

She described her approach as humble and radically personal, and said she had taken from the book the passages that moved her most, which explore the loneliness and lack of love of a woman searching for meaning in her life. She called the character a luminous figure in a world ready to prey on her.

“A woman whose sensitivity and stubborn search constitute, in themselves, a form of resistance.”

Adaptation history

The articles place the novel's screen history on the following timeline, from its original publication to the current shoot.

The 1974 film and the 1995 miniseries are the two earlier adaptations named in the coverage. The current project is the first collaboration between Elastica Films and Netflix, according to La Razón.