Mexico's Former First Lady Angélica Rivera Takes On the Most Challenging Role in Her Career in the New 'Mujeres Asesinas'

After nearly two decades away from the spotlight, a presidential marriage that made her one of the most watched women in Mexico, and a carefully measured return with Con esa misma mirada, Angélica Rivera is ready to raise the stakes.

And this time she doesn't return as the wounded woman rebuilding her life, but as part of a franchise that for years has tested some of the most intense, courageous, and complex Spanish-speaking actresses. Her addition to the fourth season of Mujeres Asesinas (Killer Women), which will air on VIX this year, not only marks another chapter in her return to acting, but also places her in one of the most uncomfortable and challenging territories of Spanish-language fiction.

Rivera's return to the screen had only materialized in March 2025 with Con esa misma mirada, the ViX series inspired by Mirada de mujer and the original Colombian work Señora Isabel. At that time, the actress spoke of her excitement about returning to acting after an 18-year absence, following her last telenovela, Destilando amor, which aired in 2007. That project served as an elegant, almost symbolic, reintroduction to an industry that had changed while she lived a different life, marked by politics, her marriage to former president Enrique Peña Nieto, and the level of public exposure that accompanies a first lady.

But if Mirada de mujer was the door to return, Mujeres asesinas 4 seems to be the real test.

The new season of the anthology will arrive with eight standalone episodes, each starring a different woman facing extreme circumstances that force her to make life-altering decisions. The premise isn't new, but it is brutally effective: women from different backgrounds, united by a destiny marked by violence, humiliation, and manipulation. Since its relaunch on streaming, the series has established itself as one of ViX's most popular franchises, precisely because it demands its protagonists delve into dark, uncomfortable, and often devastating emotional territories.

That's where the true significance of this signing lies. Rivera isn't joining a romantic comedy or a lighthearted redemption story. She's joining a brand that, since its original version, has been synonymous with characters on the edge. Televisa-Univision announced the reboot of Mujeres Asesinas for ViX premium in 2022 as a new version of the psychological thriller, with weekly episodes and stars like Yalitza Aparicio, Catherine Siachoque, Sara Maldonado, and Jedet.

The first season debuted in November 2022. The second arrived in March 2024 and was presented by the company as one of the platform's most popular series. The third premiered in May 2025 and returned with a cast led by Angelique Boyer, Bárbara de Regil, Azul Guaita, and Cassandra Sánchez Navarro. Now, the fourth season aims to maintain that tradition with names like Angélica Rivera, Susana Zabaleta, Ana Brenda Contreras, Paulina Gaitán, Livia Brito, and Mayra Batalla.

In this new season, the actresses in these powerful one-off episodes are, in addition to Rivera, Susana Zabaleta, Ana Brenda Contreras, Karena Flores, Paulina Gaitán, Vicky Araico, Livia Brito and Mayra Batalla,

The series is a production of The Mall for ViX. In the third season, producer Jorge Bermúdez explained to PRODU that the team sought to return to the essence of the original intellectual property, even reviewing feedback from the first two seasons and speaking with Marisa Grinstein, the Argentine author of the book of the same name on which the franchise is based. This detail is significant. Mujeres Asesinas (Killer Women) was not conceived as a mere exercise in sensationalist fiction but as an adaptation of a narrative universe created by an Argentine journalist who explored crimes committed by women from a social, psychological, and cultural perspective.

That's why Rivera's arrival is both intriguing and meaningful. After years of being observed for reasons unrelated to acting, she now has to inhabit a character that, by definition, demands discomfort. And therein lies the interesting point: few Mexican actresses return after an 18-year hiatus and, almost immediately, accept a role in a franchise where glamour matters less than the pain.