{"id":490262,"date":"2026-10-09T10:34:09","date_gmt":"2026-10-09T10:34:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/490262\/"},"modified":"2026-10-09T10:34:09","modified_gmt":"2026-10-09T10:34:09","slug":"celeste-diego-san-jose-elena-trape-unpack-season-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/490262\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Celeste’: Diego San Jos\u00e9, Elena Trap\u00e9 Unpack Season 2"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tAfter turning Spain\u2019s tax agency into the unlikely engine of a noir-tinged comedy, \u201cCeleste<\/a>\u201d creator Diego San Jos\u00e9<\/a> and director Elena Trap\u00e9<\/a> are taking aim at something far more sacred in Spain: soccer.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe six-part second season of the Movistar Plus<\/a> original brings Carmen Machi<\/a> (\u201cLa Mes\u00edas\u201d) back as Sara Santano, the tax inspector who spent Season 1 trying to prove that a globe-trotting Latin music star owed \u20ac20 million ($22.4 million) in Spain. This time round, the series rewinds to an earlier point in Sara\u2019s career and revisits Figueroa, the Argentine soccer star whose earlier tax case marked the only professional failure of Sara\u2019s otherwise distinguished career.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe social equation flips with him. Sara embodies one of Spain\u2019s least-loved public figures; Figueroa is a soccer idol whose failings can be forgiven as long as he delivers on the pitch.<\/p>\n

\n\tImagina Sales (The Mediapro Studio<\/a> Distribution) is handling international sales on Season 2 and will bring the series to Mipcom<\/a> ahead of its Oct. 26 world premiere at Barcelona\u2019s Serielizados Fest.<\/p>\n

\n\tSeason 1 won Spain\u2019s Ondas and Feroz awards for best comedy, while Series Mania\u2019s International Panorama awarded it best series and best actress for Machi last year. It also launched on Arte in France and Flow in Argentina.<\/p>\n

\n\tProduced by Movistar Plus and 100 Balas, and The Mediapro Studio company, the new season is again directed by Trap\u00e9, with San Jos\u00e9 writing alongside Oriol Puig and Fernando Delgado-Hierro.<\/p>\n

\n\tSan Jos\u00e9 and Trap\u00e9 spoke to Variety ahead of Mipcom about the new season.<\/p>\n

\n\tWhy make Season 2 a prequel and return to the Figueroa case?<\/p>\n

\n\tSan Jos\u00e9: It really has nothing to do with the person she is pursuing. The decision to go back in time had to do with Sara Santano herself. The Sara we leave at the end of the first season is a woman whose wounds have healed. For a writer, that\u2019s not the most interesting version of her. We wanted a character with wounds and cracks.<\/p>\n

\n\tSo we went back to Figueroa as an excuse to go back to Sara. The case is really a pretext. The advantage of Figueroa isn\u2019t Figueroa. It\u2019s that her husband is alive. That allows us to tell a completely different personal story.<\/p>\n

\n\tIf the first season is about solitude, the second is about the end of love \u2014 what happens when two people sleep separately, still care for one another, but are no longer in love.<\/p>\n

\n\tWhen you were making Season 1, had you already planted the Figueroa case with a second season in mind?<\/p>\n

\n\tSan Jos\u00e9: No. Everything to do with making a second season came after the first was already finished. So at the writing stage we had to approach it almost as an exercise in architecture, or juggling. The first challenge was to make a good season even for somebody who hasn\u2019t seen the first one, so the story works simply as a story.<\/p>\n

\n\tThen we set ourselves another challenge: making sure everything fits and resonates. If somebody watches both seasons and takes out a magnifying glass looking for something that doesn\u2019t fit, they shouldn\u2019t find it. We also wanted Season 2 to help explain things from the first that were already there.<\/p>\n

\n\tSara is exemplary, but she also breaks her own rules. What interests you about pushing her across those lines?<\/p>\n

\n\tSan Jos\u00e9: Stories become interesting when characters do things they don\u2019t normally do. Sara is an exemplary inspector, but we put her in circumstances where she breaks her own rules.<\/p>\n

\n\tShe is as obsessive and methodical as an FBI agent looking for a serial killer in Manhattan. We\u2019ve taken the classic codes of film noir and moved them somewhere gray and everyday like the tax office. It\u2019s about giving a tax office the adrenaline and muscle of the Pentagon. That collision between the ordinary and something as explosive as Dirty Harry is part of the DNA of the series.<\/p>\n

\n\tEven when the characters make questionable choices, the series seems more interested in understanding than judging them. Was that important to you?<\/p>\n

\n\tSan Jos\u00e9: Above all, we\u2019ve tried to understand them. I don\u2019t think any of the characters in either season is bad.<\/p>\n

\n\tEven the alleged tax evaders have understandable interests. The ways they defend them may be wrong, but we\u2019ve tried not to make anyone stupid.<\/p>\n

\n\tAll the characters in \u201cCeleste,\u201d on both sides of the investigation, are emotionally broken. I don\u2019t think you can hate somebody who isn\u2019t happy when they go to bed. If things aren\u2019t going well for you, I think an embrace comes more naturally than an elbow.<\/p>\n

\n\tElena, how do you convey that emotional vulnerability without tipping into melodrama?<\/p>\n

\n\tTrap\u00e9: If by sentimental you mean melodramatic, the tone and the way the characters\u2019 feelings emerge are so subtle, delicate and restrained that it\u2019s very difficult for that to happen. That is already very clearly established in Diego\u2019s writing.<\/p>\n

\n\tIt\u2019s also fundamental that Diego is with me on set every day. Any doubt, any ambiguity, any moment when you ask, \u201cDo we push this further or are we already there?\u201d becomes part of our creative dialogue.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\u201cCeleste\u201d Season 2 Javier Perez Garcia<\/p>\n

\n\tThe series has a particular affinity for losers. What draws you to them?<\/p>\n

\n\tSan Jos\u00e9: We all have a losing side, and not everybody has a winning side. What equalizes all of us is that we all know what it is to lose. Defeat is what makes us connect.<\/p>\n

\n\tBoth seasons have a special sympathy for losers. We made a heroine out of someone who is clearly looked down on in real life. Tax inspectors are badly regarded in our society.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe fact that a 62-year-old woman who is a tax inspector can at the same time be Dirty Harry is already a bet on turning the loser into somebody who gets a spotlight in fiction that she doesn\u2019t get in real life. The series is made to weave a nice suit for losers who don\u2019t usually get one.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe singer Celeste is no longer central to the story. Why keep the title?<\/p>\n

\n\tSan Jos\u00e9: We never attached much importance to the title containing the name of the most important character. \u201cCeleste\u201d for us has become almost more of a color than a figure from music.<\/p>\n

\n\tPeople even sometimes refer to Carmen Machi as Celeste: \u201cHave you seen that series about the inspector, \u2018Celeste\u2019?\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe first season connected with more people than even we expected, so we wanted to keep the same brand.<\/p>\n

\n\tElena, after the response to Season 1, what did you want to achieve with the second season?<\/p>\n

\n\tTrap\u00e9: There\u2019s a solidity to this season that I really like. As the characters gain more volume and nuance, and the plot develops, you enter a universe that keeps expanding. It becomes something more mature.<\/p>\n

\n\tOne challenge of the first season was establishing its very particular tone. This time we, the crew and Carmen already knew it. That gave us much more room to play.<\/p>\n

\n\tWatching it now, I feel we\u2019ve grown. It feels like a very solid season.<\/p>\n

\n\tYou\u2019ve now made \u201cCeleste\u201d and \u201cYakarta<\/a>\u201d together, with Javier C\u00e1mara<\/a> earning an International Emmy nomination last month for the latter. Could there be a \u201cYakarta 2\u201d?<\/p>\n

\n\tSan Jos\u00e9: My plan, as a viewer, is for Elena to make something without me, because I\u2019d like to see it. The downside of working with Elena for three or four years is that I don\u2019t get to watch things by Elena.<\/p>\n

\n\tWe\u2019ve made two series together, three seasons in total, and I\u2019m extremely happy with them. But now it\u2019s Elena\u2019s turn to do her own thing.<\/p>\n

\n\tIf Elena wants to make \u201cYakarta 2,\u201d it will happen. That depends on Elena.<\/p>\n

\n\tTrap\u00e9: What I hope neither of us rules out is working together again. Whether it will be \u201cYakarta 2\u201d or something else, I don\u2019t know.<\/p>\n

\n\tSan Jos\u00e9: I think if Javier C\u00e1mara wins the International Emmy, it\u2019s going to be difficult to sit down to dinner without somebody saying, \u201cWhy don\u2019t you make a \u2018Yakarta 2\u2019?\u201d So let\u2019s make Javier responsible for that.<\/p>\n

\n\tThis interview has been edited and condensed <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After turning Spain\u2019s tax agency into the unlikely engine of a noir-tinged comedy, \u201cCeleste\u201d creator Diego San Jos\u00e9…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":490263,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[191264,74787,191265,191266,191267,191268,1644,88,90,89,1645,191269],"class_list":["post-490262","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-jose","tag-carmen-machi","tag-celeste","tag-diego-san-josu00e9","tag-elena-trapu00e9","tag-javier-cu00e1mara","tag-mipcom","tag-movistar-plus","tag-san-jose","tag-san-jose-headlines","tag-san-jose-news","tag-the-mediapro-studio","tag-yakarta"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/490262","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=490262"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/490262\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/490263"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=490262"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=490262"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=490262"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}