Prime Video orders series based on comic book El Gato Negro

A new series based on a comic book is in development at Prime Video and an actor has even been cast. Diego Boneta is ready to lead the new bilingual series El Gato (working title), based on the comic series El Gato Negro by Richard Dominguez. Production is expected to begin this spring in Mexico.

Boneta was previously attached to a project based on the same comic book, titled El Gato Negro: Nocturnal Warrior, from MGM Television and Mark Burnett that stalled in 2019.



In El Gato, Boneta (photo) plays Frank Guerrero, the black sheep of his family, who finds himself at the center of a major conspiracy when he discovers that his father was the freebooter from the '70s. Frank returns to Mexico after his father's death and finds himself in a nest of snakes - his estranged family - vying for control of his father's business empire.

But Frank's grief is interrupted when he learns that his only inheritance, a seemingly worthless plot of land on the border, sits atop the lair of a famous costumed vigilante. His father was El Gato. Now Frank is in the crosshairs. To survive, he will have to solve mysteries from decades ago and unravel the truth about his father's connections to a modern-day terror plot.

Eric Carrasco created the series and will executive produce the series along with co-showrunners Turi Meyer and Alfredo Septién.

“This is a pulp thriller,” Carrasco said in a statement. “It’s a family drama, it’s everything I love about spies and masks and secret identities. A lot of us on this team – Diego, Andrew Mittman, Steve Stark and Carla Gonzalez Vargas, and I – have been at this for a long time now, and it’s a genuine thrill to finally make the show with MGM Television and Prime Video.”

“Sharing El Gato with audiences around the world is a dream come true,” Boneta shared. “This has been a passion of mine since I started Three Amigos. Eric Carrasco and the entire team have built a character and universe that honors the superhero genre and still feels completely epic and original. It is an absolute honor to play Frank and produce this with my amazing partners at Amazon, MGM, and all other producers on this epic story. Get ready for a wild ride.”

In addition to Carrasco, the series is executive produced by Boneta, Meyer, Septién, Toluca Pictures' Steve Stark, 1.21's Mittman and Gonzalez Vargas, and co-executive produced by Kai Dolbashian, Marilu G. Carranza and Joel Novoa-Schneider. The series is produced by MGM Television, a division of Amazon MGM Studios.

Boneta and his company Three Amigos, under an overall deal with Prime Video, are currently in production on the upcoming film Follow, directed by Gonzalo Tobal and starring Boneta and Martha Higareda for Prime Video. This is the first project under Three Amigos' overall deal with Prime Video.

Last year, Boneta starred in two limited series for Prime Video – Stanley, directed by Beto Hinojosa and La Liberación, directed by Alejandra Márquez Abella.

Carrasco is currently in post-production on the upcoming animated series Twilight of the Gods, which he co-created with Zack Snyder and Jay Oliva for Netflix. Previously, he served as co-executive producer on Foundation (2021) for Apple TV+ and wrote for Masters of the Universe: Revelation and Supergirl.

Septién and Meyer, the writing and production team, have been working together for years and most recently served as co-executive producers on the limited series Griselda for Netflix. They also served as co-executive producers on Midnight, Texas, The Vampire Diaries, Witches of East End and Salem.

Meyer has also directed multiple episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel and Smallville.