Maya and the Three | Netflix

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Jorge R. Gutierrez Planning New Netflix Series Based in ‘Maya and the Three,’ ‘Book of Life’ Universe

For his next project for Netflix, Jorge R. Gutiérrez is heading back to the world of Maya and the Three.

The Emmy and Annie-award-winning Mexican animation film director said he is in development on a new limited series that will be set in the same mythological Mesoamerican universe as his 2021 hit Netflix series Maya and the Three and that of his 2014 animated feature The Book of Life.

The project will be Gutiérrez’s third under the overall deal he and his production company Mexopolis signed with Netflix in 2020. Maya and the Three, a feminist spin on Mesoamerican mythology about a female warrior princess who embarks on a journey to fulfill an ancient prophecy and save humanity from vengeful gods, dropped in the summer of 2021 and was a global smash for the streamer. Gutiérrez is also in development for Netflix on his first-ever adult animation series: I, Chihuahua!, which the 48-year-old director described as “basically a Street Fighter movie about a little Mexican Chihuahua dog who wants to be a Mexican wrestler.”

Speaking to animation students at a workshop at the Annecy animation festival on Tuesday, Gutiérrez shared a few first images from I, Chihuahua!, which is currently in pilot stage, but was careful not to give any major spoilers for the show, which he said he was still “knee-deep” in development, with such animation luminaries as Gravity Falls creator Alex Hirsch and The Mitchells vs. the Machines director Mike Rianda working as consultants on the project.

“But it’s about this underdog Chihuahua who enters the World Cup tournament for fighters, and there’s going to be fighters from all over the world, he’s going to fight tigers and panthers and cheetahs and jaguars and he’s just this little dog. It’s about the underdog that is Latin America competing with the world.”

Gutiérrez was even more tight-lipped about his next Netflix limited series except to say it would be set in the same Mesoamerican universe as Maya and the Three and The Book of Life and feature “a lot of reincarnated characters that that. It’s pretty crazy but its still really early [in development.].”

Gutiérrez’s announcement came at the end of a workshop with animation students, the first of its kind at Annecy. The festival has a special focus this year on Mexican animation and Gutiérrez designed the 2023 Annecy poster. In a freewheeling, entertaining and very inspirational talk, the Mexican director talked about his many, many setbacks on the road to success, including having the idea for The Book of Life rejected by “every single studio in Hollywood, who all said ‘no one wants to see a film about dead Mexicans. This was back in 2001,” he recalled, to the “worst pitch of all time” he gave to Guillermo del Toro to try and get the Oscar-winning director to producer The Book of Life 13 years later. The story, involving excessive sweating, deafening leaf-blowers drowning out his banter and a tequila-soaked script, had a happy end as del Toro, who previously had “turned me down 15 times!” said Gutiérrez, told him he was a fan of his work.

The Book of Life, which featured the voice talents of Diego Luna, Zoe Saldana and Channing Tatum, was a major box office success — grossing $100 million worldwide — and a huge home entertainment hit and was the project that caught Netflix’s attention, leading to Gutiérrez’s overall deal with the streamer.

In his talk, Gutiérrez frequently referenced his wife and creative partner Sandra Equihua, who was sitting watching in the front row with their son. He also discussed in detail how aged 44, he received his first autism diagnosis. “The reason I was diagnosed was because when my son was very little, when he was two and a half, he was diagnosed autistic and my parents in Mexico said ‘What? He can’t be artistic! He’s exactly like you when you were his age.’ That’s when I started getting tested and then sure enough I found out I am on the spectrum [and] I realized, I’ve been studying people my whole life. You know, it’s been great for animation [because] I’ve been mimicking people,” he said. “I started to realize, that maybe 50 percent, 50 percent is my estimate, of people in animation that I’ve worked with are on the spectrum…They are ADHD or on the spectrum somehow, because when would you get diagnosed, you get told that your brain works differently, that you think differently. Well, guess who makes those leaps in the art form? The ones who think differently, who don’t just think in straight lines.”

Gutiérrez ended his talk with a call to the students in the room to not let setbacks or failures discourage them, but to remember “in your darkest time” that “every single director you guys admire was once a student like you. They graduated, they were terrified. Of not getting a job. Of losing that job. I remember thinking losing a job would be the end of the world. Now I’ve lost maybe 30 jobs. You just get better. You just have to stick to it. Persistence is more important than talent. And I think if you help others, if you help those who can’t help you, it will come back to you in a good way. Don’t worry, you’re gonna make it”

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Jorge R. Gutierrez’s Mission to Make Animation More Diverse

As a writer, director, producer, animator and voice actor, Jorge R. Gutierrez has created a body of joyful and inspiring work that celebrates his native Mexican culture, and, he hopes, will leave the animation world “more diverse than when I found it.”

Take, for instance, his most recent release, the hit Netflix limited series Maya and the Three. In 2022, the empowering story based on Mesoamerican mythology and its female heroes won a pair of Annie Awards, including one for best animated broadcast production for children, and four children and family Emmy Awards.

“Representing Mexican culture and representing Mexican American culture and representing Latin America in animation, that’s always been my inspiration. And then how to make that universal has been my lifelong journey,” says Gutierrez, who was honored in The Hollywood Reporter‘s first-ever kids’ entertainment power list. “Hopefully it allows people, and kids specifically, to look at the world and go ‘not only does that look like me, but it was made by someone who looks like me.’ That I didn’t have growing up.”

He continues, “I believe for a lot of Hispanic and Latino kids, the biggest obstacle into going into animation and the arts starts at home because there’s not a lot of examples of success. I’m really invested in giving this next generation and these future generations a symbol and go ‘We can do this. You can do it.’ That’s my hope.”

Speaking last week at the Annecy International Animation Festival, Gutierrez—who also designed the 2023 festival poster, reflecting this year’s theme of celebrating Mexican animation—revealed that he’s developing a new limited series that will be set in the same mythological Mesoamerican universe as Maya and the Three as well as his 2014 animated feature The Book of Life, based around Mexico’s Day of the Dead.

The multi-hyphenate recently re-upped his overall deal at Netflix, which also will include development of a Netflix animated series, I, Chihuahua, which the filmmaker described at Annecy as “basically a Street Fighter movie about a little Mexican Chihuahua dog who wants to be a Mexican wrestler.” Gutierrez’s wife and muse, Sandra Equihua, is a frequent collaborator, leading character design on many of his projects.

Gutierrez—who brings an infectious joy to his work—admits that some would say the so-called “golden era” of animation has passed, but he disagrees. “I really believe the golden era is right now. And what I mean by that is for the first time in the history of our medium, people from everywhere are getting the opportunities, and to me that’s the real golden era.”

He attributes his unique approach to storytelling to multiple factors, including his discovery at age 40 that he is on the autism spectrum. “I was diagnosed because my son is on the spectrum,” he explains. “As soon as I got diagnosed, it really opened up a lot of stuff. And so a lot of my work deals with outsiders and deals with people who don’t belong and try to become not only strong enough inside to go on these journeys, but it kind of comes down to the choices they make for the bigger good. And I think that’s been my whole life.”

He reflects, “When people ask me, ‘Are your characters autistic?’ I always say, ‘Well, they’re based on my struggles in my life. So, yeah, they are.’”