Netflix’s Maya And The Three is the Latest Animated Series by Prolific Mexican Animator Jorge R. Gutierrez

The upcoming animated series will debut on the streaming platform Netflix on October 22nd. Featuring a spirited warrior princess who goes on a journey in order to fulfill an ancient prophecy and save humanity from the wrath of vengeful gods.

The upcoming Netflix animated miniseries “Maya and the Three” by animator and writer Jorge R. Gutierrez, known for “El Tigre: The Adventures of Manny Rivera,” which aired on Nickelodeon and “The Book of Life.” The nine episode series will highlight Gutierrez’s Mexican heritage, wanting to put his own take on that by combining it with the idea of a warrior princess. The story is about Maya fighting to save her land from the Aztec god of war, who is joined by three warriors in her quest to save her home from destruction according to the show’s synopsis.

Maya (voiced by Zoe Saldana) is a headstrong and fierce princess, joined by warrior Picchu (voiced by Gabriel Iglesias), Prince Zatz (voiced by Diego Luna), and Skull Warrior Chimi (voiced by Stephanie Beatriz). Gutierrez wanted to have a female lead to honor the strong female figures in his life who he viewed as warriors, according to himself in order to subvert the mythological heroes in Mexican culture that consist largely of males. He did this by having a female hero at the forefront this time, challenging sexist notions of women that are held in Mexico.

“I said I want to honor my wife, my sister and my mother, which I saw as warriors...” Guiterrez said in an interview with Animation magazine.

Sandra Equihua, who is a character designer and also Gutierrez’s wife, was a big inspiration to Gutierrez. Due to this, Gutierrez made the characters of King and Queen Teca that himself and his wife respectively voice.

Gutierrez decided that, instead of a feature length movie, the story needed a series to flesh out the characters and plot. The project came into fruition through an encounter at a pizza party where he met the Vice President of Kids and Family programming at Netflix who asked him to pitch a passion project. “I want to do this epic, Mesoamerican, epic, three-movies-at-once.” Gutierrez said in the same Animation magazine interview. Cobb was impressed by his pitch and agreed instantly, greenlighting the project.

The closed Toronto and Winnipeg based studio Tangent Animation produced the animation for the series. ‘’So we had about 40 people here in L.A. and about 400 people in Toronto and Winnipeg… I tried to hire as many El Tigre and Book of Life rock stars as we could find, and scoured for new talent on Instagram and Twitter.’’ Gutierrez said.

UCR graduate and Mexican American Guillermo Guzman commented about this show. "Representation is very important to me and I love how this show gives it to me." Guzman said. "If more cartoons are going to be this way, then I truly envy the new generation that will have heroes that look like them.”

“Maya and the Three” streams on Netflix, October 22nd with all episodes released at once.