Creator Diego San José and director Elena Trapé have detailed the upcoming second season of the comedy series “Celeste,” discussing the decision to shift focus toward soccer and transform a tax inspector into an unlikely noir figure.
Shifting focus to a soccer prequel
The six-part second season of the Movistar Plus original series brings back Carmen Machi as Sara Santano, the tax inspector from the first season. Instead of following the previous narrative thread, the new season operates as a prequel. It rewinds to an earlier point in Sara’s career to revisit Figueroa, an Argentine soccer star whose tax case represented the sole professional failure of her career.
According to San José, the choice to go backward in time served as a narrative device to explore Sara when she still carried unresolved wounds, contrasting the solitude of the first season with the dissolution of a marriage. The creative team noted that the new episodes were developed after the first season concluded, requiring careful structural design so that the story functions independently while remaining consistent with the established continuity.
Blending the ordinary with film noir
San José and Trapé described the series as an attempt to infuse a gray, everyday tax office with the adrenaline and methods of classic film noir and hardboiled detective fiction. By placing an unheralded 62-year-old tax inspector in situations that mirror tropes associated with characters like Dirty Harry, the creators aimed to spotlight ordinary figures typically viewed unfavorably in society.
Trapé highlighted that maintaining emotional vulnerability without slipping into melodrama relied on subtle, restrained writing and close daily collaboration on set. The creative team emphasized an approach focused on understanding rather than judging the characters, including those under investigation.
International release and future collaborations
Season 2 is scheduled to hold its world premiere on October 26 at Barcelona’s Serielizados Fest, with international sales handled by Imagina Sales, part of The Mediapro Distribution network, ahead of Mipcom. The first season earned recognition at Spain’s Ondas and Feroz awards, as well as at Series Mania, and distributed internationally through Arte in France and Flow in Argentina.
Regarding future projects, San José expressed interest in seeing Trapé direct independently, though neither ruled out future collaborations following their work on “Celeste” and “Yakarta.”
