Netflix’s popular Spanish series Money Heist released the second part of its fifth and final season last week, bringing an end to the greatest heist in history to an end. While fans will miss the ragtag team of robbers, clad in red overalls and Salvador Dali masks, following the omniscient Professor’s instructions, a lot of people have tried to figure out why the show ended after just five seasons following four long years of success, drama and glory.
Created by Alex Pina, Money Heist, with its scathing socio-political commentary coupled with romance, drama, killer action and chaos weaved in one, is one of the greatest Netflix productions and a real game-changer.
After Tokyo, aka Ursula Corbero’s unprecedented death in the first part of the fifth season, Pina had already predicted the conflict and tension to rise to the “most extreme and savage levels”.
With a riveting end to the series, aficionados have been left wallowing in their sadness about the lack of a sixth season. Although the showrunners have announced a prequel series involving Pedro Alonso’s Berlin in 2023, one can simply not get enough of the escapades of Professor and his minions.
However, it is quite a miracle for the show to have reached its stature given its humble origins. When Money Heist was initially aired on local Spanish channels like Antena3, they could not retain viewership which almost brought the series to an end. As Corbero recounted, they had all said their “goodbyes, shared tears and hugs” and “moved on” to their other projects.
However, Pina, persistent and determined, had caught up with the Spanish content VP of Netflix, Diego Avalos, in a hotel and presented the show to him. Avalos watched the series on his way back to Los Angeles and was so enamoured by it that Netflix soon resuscitated the project, reformatting it for a global launch. They successfully convinced a reluctant Pina to helm the show and things snowballed.
Money Heist’s inexplicable success on Netflix led to a huge impact that even involved a growing interest in the Spanish language and other Spanish TV shows and films. Pina and the rest of the cast were overwhelmed by the huge response and the unimaginable love and support being showered on them and the characters. Their record-breaking viewership and massive popularity elevated Money Heist to the ranks of some of the greatest shows of all time.
What started off as a limited series went on to become a four-year-long saga of madness, mirth, violence and emotions. Even script coordinator Javier Gomez Santander had recalled how they had never anticipated the “scope of the phenomenon” that would probably prevent them from killing off Berlin so early.
However, all good things must come to an end and Pina and his team, after toiling hard during the pandemic that disrupted all their plans, decided to bring it to an end after “2000 minutes of fiction with two heists” to keep the essence and magic of the show alive.
In an interview with Indian express, Pina said, “I think we’ve exhausted some of the characters’ emotional arcs and their arcs of transformation. We’ve told a lot and I think it’s a good time to stop. It’s a very climatic season and I think it’s always better to leave sooner rather than later.”
The executive producer Jesus Colmenar echoed a similar sentiment, talking about how Pina’s vision was “to leave with a bang and make a season that is very special in many ways.”
While Pina has firmly said that Money Heist has come to an end, he believes in making several spin-offs related to the various characters who have been constant fan favourites, including the Professor, Tokyo, Nairobi, Denver and more.
Alvaro Morte, aka the Professor, is very open to playing the character again. “It would be a pleasure to return to The Professor. Anything can happen,” he said.
“We’ve always looked for characters to have a very complex, layered design,” Pina said. “So I think almost every character of Money Heist has a duality that we would like to see in a spinoff. We could watch any of them in other contexts.”
It is refreshing to see the creators not run after staggering profits and pay attention to storytelling and character arcs, for a change. While fans will be disappointed to no longer hear the familiar croon of ‘Bella Ciao’, there is always something new to look forward to, as promised by the director!
Watch the final season of Money Heist on Netflix now.
