Here’s a not-so-quick question: if the rebellious daughter of a famous singer, the heiress to a fashion empire, a poor girl that dreams of becoming a doctor, the Draco Malfoy-esque child of a powerful politician, the son of two new rich butchers ashamed of his parentage, and a young man fresh out of high school looking for his father’s murderer ever got together, what would they do? If your answer was “start a band and release a series of international hits”, then you are probably one of the many people swept away by the Rebelde phenomenon in the second half of the 2000s. The iconic Mexican telenovela first hit screens in 2004, soon giving birth to a real life pop group that released a total of nine studio albums in three different languages before the end of the decade. Now, Netflix is about to take its chances with this cultural juggernaut with the release of a sequel series also titled Rebelde, on January 5, 2022. Set years after the end of its predecessor, the 2022 Rebelde follows a new group of musically talented kids at Elite Way School. And if you were a fan of the telenovela, God knows just how anxious you must be for the show to drop.
However, if you somehow managed to go through the 2000s without ever even hearing the first notes of absolute bops like “Sólo Quédate en Silencio” and “Aún Hay Algo”, you might be at a loss as to what the fuss is all about. Netflix is certainly attracting many new viewers with its promotional material for the show; after all, who doesn’t love a good teen drama? But the history of Rebelde stretches far beyond the limits of the teasers and trailers released by the streaming company since its September TUDUM event, and even beyond the length of the telenovela that inspired the series.
While the story of Rebelde might begin with the start of a new school year at the prestigious Elite Way boarding school, in Mexico City, its history begins in Argentina, in 2002. Coming from the successful children’s show Chiquititas, writer and producer Cris Morena created the telenovela Rebelde Way, produced by her own company, the Cris Morena Group, and Dori Media Group. The show came out on Canal 9 while Argentina was reeling from one of the worst financial crises in the country’s history. It starred Luisana Lopilato, Benjamín Rojas, Felipe Colombo, and Camila Bordonada as Mía, Pablo, Manuel, and Marizza, students at the prestigious Elite Way School that meet during a school trip and, despite their conflicting personalities, decide to start a band, which the name Erreway. Aimed at a teenage demographic, the telenovela discussed topics like sex, class inequality, and the everlasting struggle between children and their parents.
This very simple premise managed to catch the eye of Rebelde Way’s target audience. The telenovela aired for two seasons on Canal 9 and, subsequently, on América TV, coming to an end in 2003. The following year, a movie titled Erreway: 4 Caminos came out, chronicling the road to fame of the fictional band formed by Mía, Pablo, Manuel, and Marizza.
But while on screen the band was just starting its long journey towards stardom, Erreway was doing even better. Much in the style of Disney Channel sitcoms, Lopilato, Bordonada, Rojas, and Colombo were projected to stardom as both actors and singers, performing together as a band of the same name as the one formed by their characters.
As Morena herself told Billboard, in 2004, Rebelde Way was conceived as a vehicle for the four members of the band, who had all worked with her on Chiquititas when they were younger. And, since Chiquititas was a musical show, its child stars were expected to sing as well as act. It’s safe to say, then, that everyone involved with Erreway knew very well what they were doing. Thus, it is no surprise that the band did almost just as well as its parent show, releasing three studio albums between 2002 and 2004, and a reunion album in 2021. Without Lopilato, Vuelvo was recorded in 2007, after the band had already broken up, but took more than a decade to hit shelves and streaming platforms. Their first album, Señales, went triple platinum in Argentina, and, thanks to the success of the telenovela, exported by Telefe Internacional, the band played concerts in various Latin American countries, as well as in Israel and Eastern Europe.
Besides being sold to 39 countries, Rebelde Way also inspired a series of local versions, each with their own band. India had REMIX and Remix Gang in 2004; Brazil had Rebelde and RebeldeS in 2006; Portugal’s Rebelde Way came out in 2008, followed by the first singles of RBL; and Corazón Rebelde aired in Chile in 2009, originating the band CRZ. However, the most popular of all Rebelde Way remakes was the Mexican one, that ran from 2004 to 2006 on the Las Estrellas network.
Loosely based on its Argentinian counterpart, Rebelde was produced by Televisa and written by Pedro Damián. It had a total of 440 episodes split among three seasons. Instead of four protagonists, it had six: heiress Mía Colucci (Anahí), her angry rival Roberta Pardo (Dulce María), politician son Diego Bustamante (Christopher von Uckermann), revenge-seeker Miguel Arango (Alfonso Herrera), poor, innocent Lupita Fernández (Maite Perroni), and insecure Giovanni Mendez (Christian Chávez). With personalities that couldn’t be more different from one another, the six kids come together while studying at the same boarding school, the extremely prestigious Elite Way. The show’s cast of characters also includes Celina Ferrer (Estefanía Villarreal), Mía’s best friend; school principal Pascual Gandía (Felipe Nájera) and his daughter, Pilar (Karla Cossío); and Josy Luján (Zoraida Gómez), an orphaned girl whose tuition is secretly paid by a mysterious benefactor. Among the main subplots are the romance between Roberta’s mother, Alma Rey (Ninel Conde), and Mía’s father, Franco Colucci (Juan Ferrara), and the borderline criminal activities of an elitist secret society called La Logia, or The Lodge, that threatens the well-being of students like Lupita, benefited by the school’s scholarship program.
Much like the members of Erreway and Morena, four actors of Rebelde’s main cast - Anahí, Dulce María, Herrera, and Chávez - had already worked with Damián in one of his previous projects, Clase 406 (2002-2003), in which they showed their singing talents. So, while the fictional band RBD was playing in bars and TV shows dedicated to amateur performers, the real RBD was releasing its first album and going on tour. Featuring three of the telenovela’s opening themes - “Rebelde”, “Sólo Quédate en Silencio”, and “Sálvame” - Rebelde came out in 2004. It was followed by four other studio albums with original songs: Nuestro Amor (2005), Celestial (2006), Empezar Desde Cero (2007), and Para Olvidarte de Mí (2009), released right before the band’s break-up.
Both the band and the telenovela were major hits worldwide. Though it’s hard to find reputable sources on how many countries Televisa sold Rebelde to, the show aired all over Latin America and in the United States. To accommodate its huge number of Brazilian fans, RBD recorded Portuguese versions of three of their albums. They also released an album in English, in 2006, titled Rebels. In the same year, the band did a 32-city American Tour. Their success hit countries like Italy, Turkey, and Japan, among others, and the band sold over 10 million albums worldwide. In the telenovela, pop music celebrities like Hillary Duff, Lenny Kravitz, and Gorillaz all had their moment on screen with Mía, Roberta, Lupita, Diego, Miguel, and Giovanni. Rebelde and RBD even had their own board game and official Barbie dolls.
In 2007, a sitcom starring the members of RBD aired on the Mexican cable channel Sky, and later on the Canal 5 network. Only 13 episodes long, RBD, la Familia presented a fictionalized version of the lives of Anahí, Dulce María, Perroni, Herrera, von Uckermann, and Chávez. In 2020, by popular demand, RBD finally made their catalog available on Spotify. They also got together (minus Dulce María and Herrera) for a virtual concert, “Ser O Parecer: The Global Virtual Union”, that, according to the band’s official Twitter account, was watched by over 1.5 million people in less than 12 hours. All of this just goes to show that fans’ love for RBD didn’t decrease over the years. Netflix’s timing for a new Rebelde couldn’t be better.
From what has been shown on teasers, trailers, and other promotional material released by Netflix, Rebelde is a sequel to the popular telenovela, and not a reboot, as fans originally imagined. Estefanía Villarreal will make a comeback as Celina, now the principal of Elite Way School. Karla Cossío is also reprising her role as Pilar Gandía. One of the characters, Luka Colucci (Franco Masini), is related to Mía, and shots of the original RBD’s records and uniforms appear all over the official trailer, as well as references to The Lodge, that seems to have resumed activities after years away from the school.
Netflix’s Rebelde will once more expand the franchise’s main cast. Instead of six, there will now be eight protagonists: the aforementioned Luka, Jana (Azul Guaita), Estebán (Sergio Mayer Mori), MJ (Andrea Chaparro), Andi (Lizeth Selene), Dixon (Jerónimo Cantillo), Sebas (Alejandro Puente), and Emília (Giovanna Grigio). At least two of the protagonistas come from other parts of Latin America: Emília is Brazilian, and Dixon hails from Colombia. It’s a great way to both cater to the many fans the original telenovela garnered outside of Mexico and attract viewers from these two other demographics.
This approach, however, isn’t new. In 2018, Pedro Damián tried to repeat Rebelde’s success with a new teen telenovela, LIKE, la Leyenda. Shot at the same Bosque Real Country Club that housed Elite Way School, LIKE followed a group of teens studying at the international school Life Institute of Knowledge and Evolution. Just as their peers from Elite Way, the students manage to overcome their differences and start a successful band called Like. Televisa’s casting for the telenovela went way beyond Mexican borders, searching for talent in Chile, Argentina, Peru, Brazil, and even Japan: Keiko Kobayashi, played by Japanese idol Anna Iriyama, was one of the show’s darlings. But, despite all this effort, LIKE never managed to be a hit like its predecessor, lasting only 96 episodes.
Of course, things are very different for the Netflix show. LIKE had Damián’s name attached to it, but it lacked Rebelde’s recognizable brand and the streaming platform's sense of timing. Though fans of Rebelde and RBD were certainly still active in 2018, there wasn’t as much buzz about the telenovela and the band as there is now, even before more concrete news about the Netflix adaptation started to pop. Judging from the trailer and the “Rebelde” music video, the new Rebelde seems to have found a good balance between novelty and nostalgia, paying homage to those that came before, but also bringing in something fresh. It looks like a series capable of pleasing old and new fans alike. Now all there’s left to do is wait for January and see whether Netflix will succeed in writing its own chapter in Rebelde’s long history book.