Rafael Amaya Playing El Chapo? El Señor de los Cielos Actor to Star in New Bilingual Series Told Through Emma Coronel's Eyes

After more than a decade embodying one of the most iconic figures in Spanish-language television, Rafael Amaya is preparing to return to the world that defined his career, but from a very different angle.

Amaya, best known for his 11-year run as Aurelio Casillas in El Señor de los Cielos, is set to star in and executive produce a scripted bilingual series in development centered on Emma Coronel, the wife of Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán, reported Deadline. The project will explore Guzmán's story from Coronel's perspective, focusing on her life alongside one of the most notorious drug traffickers in modern history.

The series, which is currently searching for a writer, is being developed with Coronel herself attached as an executive producer, alongside Amaya and his producing partner Martiza Ramos through Amaya Productions. Zero Gravity Management is also producing. The involvement of Coronel marks a notable shift from previous dramatizations, placing the narrative lens on the emotional and personal cost of life inside the Sinaloa Cartel's inner circle.

For Amaya, the project represents both continuity, evolution and also the embrace to the genre of the so called "narcoseries", which have propelled his career, but also threatened his life. From 2013 to 2024, he headlined El Señor de los Cielos, portraying Casillas, a fictional drug lord inspired loosely by real-world traffickers. Over 11 seasons, the series became one of Telemundo's most successful franchises and helped define a generation of narco-dramas.

He has announced his return to the franchise for a new season.

El Chapo's story fictionalized on TV

Within that universe, the show also introduced characters clearly modeled after El Chapo. Early seasons featured El Chema, a capo played first by Mauricio Ochmann and later by Alberto Guerra (Griselda,) a thinly veiled fictionalization that reflected Guzmán's rise. Later iterations reworked the archetype as the series evolved, mirroring shifts in real-world cartel dynamics.

Amaya also appeared in La Reina del Sur, the pioneer of the genre, where he played El Güero, a role that further cemented his association with narco-driven storytelling in Latin American television.

Univision has explored the El Chapo story more directly. The network produced El Chapo, starring Marco de la O as Guzmán. That series focused on the drug lord's ascent, capture, escapes, and eventual extradition, offering a more traditional crime-drama structure rooted in law enforcement and cartel rivalries.

El Chapo's wife

The new project involving Amaya and Coronel appears poised to diverge from that formula. Rather than centering on operations or power struggles, the series will examine the personal consequences of Guzmán's criminal life through the eyes of the woman who remained publicly loyal to him until his conviction in U.S. federal court in 2019. Guzmán is currently serving a life sentence plus 30 years.

Amaya's participation adds an additional layer of significance. After spending more than a decade portraying fictionalized cartel power, he is now stepping into a project tied directly to real figures, with one of them helping shape the narrative from within.

The series remains in early development, but its premise alone places it among the most closely watched upcoming projects in the narco-drama space, signaling that the genre continues to evolve, shifting away from glorification and toward introspection, accountability, and the human cost of organized crime.