‘Narcos: Mexico’s Creator and Star Tease The End of the Series

Over its three seasons, Narcos: Mexico has told of the rise of an unexpected leader and the unification of the Guadalajara, Tijuana, Sinaloa, and Juárez cartels. Now, in the wake of this partnership’s fall, it’s telling the saga of one final kingpin. But this time around, it’s a cartel head Narcos fans will recognize. Prepare to experience the rise and shocking fall of Amado Carrillo Fuentes (José Mariá Yazpik), aka The Lord of the Skies.

Yazpik’s man of few words has been a mainstay in this universe since the original series. For that reason, Yazpik’s stellar performance, and the prominence of the real Fuentes, an installment all about Amado has felt inevitable. Ahead of this final season, Decider spoke to Yazpik about what it’s like to finally be the boss, as well as Narcos: Mexico showrunner Carlo Bernard about why the scope of this season is different from the rest.

Decider: José, you’ve been playing Amado for four seasons now, starting with Narcos Season 3. How has your characterization evolved over the years?

José María Yazpik: The writers have done such an amazing job just structuring it so perfectly. Since [Narcos: Mexico‘s] first season, you see him driving Félix [Diego Luna] around. Then on the second season, taking more responsibility inside the whole group and in the third season, you see him going from a mid-level drug dealer to just being the boss. So the arc has been tremendous, and it’s been fantastic playing that. In this season, you also see the existential trip that this character is taking. It becomes a complex character. It’s always a gift as an actor to play characters like this.

What I especially love about Amado this season is he’s been on the sidelines for so long, and he’s seen so many cartel leaders rise and fall. Did that influence how you portrayed him as a boss this season?

Yazpik: No. No, no. I had to stay focused on… his nature. Be true to his nature. Because that’s what I think really happened with him. He was like one of a kind in that sense. He liked to stay low-key, he treated his people very well. So I just wanted to be true to his natural state.

Carlo, when the writers were talking, when did you guys decide that you wanted to do an Amado-focused season?

Carlo Bernard: The show is drawn by or guided by the history of real events, right? The reality is that when Félix Gallardo went to prison, which is what happens at the end of Season 2, the Guadalajara Cartel eventually sort of broke up and fractured. That really was in the ’90s, and that really was when Amado Carrillo Fuentes rose to prominence and really became the biggest trafficker Mexico has ever seen.

Having always admired José’s performance, I thought it would be cool to take the character who’s always on the fringes, right? Who was slowly becoming more and more significant in the show but who I was always drawn to, and take that character, who had always been cool, and say what happens when we give this guy a personal life or when suddenly you realize something about his past that’s very painful. So take somebody that you’re familiar with but you don’t really know on a deeper level to examine that character, and use his story to provide this rise story.

Part of the show that people like is seeing them build an empire, right? That’s part of the pleasure of it. In this case, seeing Amado do that, we wanted to do it from a place of emotional complexity a little bit. So it feels different from the kingpins we’ve seen in the past, which is an exciting opportunity. Yeah, it was something that I knew we wanted to handle in that way from the beginning.

Since Amado is an established character in this universe, did that give you some freedom to play with other elements in his story? For example, I noticed this season is more politically focused and more focused on the press than seasons past.

Bernard: Yeah. I knew that, also, I wanted to expand the scope of the show and tell more stories and different types of stories and introduce a couple characters who are not directly involved in the drug trade, but who are indirectly impacted by it, like the journalist or the police officer. I knew I wanted to do that and also stay true to the characters that were established.

Netflix has announced that Season 3 will be the final season of Narcos: Mexico. If this means the end of the Narcos universe, what do you want fans to take away from you and your team’s work over so many years?

Bernard: I just think it’s about the complexity of the war on drugs. Obviously, American consumption has to be acknowledged as a driver of all this. You know, Mexico doesn’t have a drug problem. Mexico has a corruption problem. America has a drug problem, and America’s drug problem is what fuels and exacerbates issues in other countries.

There’s a dysfunctional relationship between Mexico and America. Hopefully, in telling this story, if nothing else — even though it’s designed to be entertaining — people are also seeing that the issue is complex and that there are a lot of unintended consequences that come along with the drug war.

José, what about you? Do you have anything you’d like to add or tell fans as we come to Narcos: Mexico‘s end?

José: Well, pretty much what Carlo said. That’s spot on. I think the war on drugs has been a tactic that hasn’t worked at all, and, like Carlo said, there are consumers in the U.S. and corruption in Mexico. But it goes the other way around as well. For Mexico to be able to, as you see in the season, to take all the drugs to the U.S., that also leads to corruption in the U.S. and bringing the money back and the weapons. So it’s a very complex situation. I hope the people that see the Narcos franchise will talk about this and will understand what mistakes were made in the ’90s and ’80s so we can understand where we’re standing.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

All episodes of Narcos: Mexico Season 3 premiere on Netflix Friday, November 5. 

Watch Narcos: Mexico on Netflix