Berlin Trailer: The Problematic Fave Of The Money Heist Saga Returns

When the cost of living starts to bite, there's only one thing to do: an elaborate heist. At least, that's the only conceivable solution for Andrés de Fonollosa aka Berlin (Pedro Alonso), who was first introduced as one of the leaders of the original crew in Netflix's high-stakes heist series "La Casa de Papel." (In English-speaking countries, it's stuck with the considerably less poetic name "Money Heist.")

Now, Berlin returns in his own prequel spin-off series (named after himself, of course), where we'll get to meet a heist crew from his golden years: Cameron (Begona Vargas), Roi (Julio Peña), Damián (Tristán Ulloa), Keila (Michelle Jenner), and Bruce (Joel Sanchez). The eight-episode series will also see the return of Itziar Ituño as Raquel Murillo and Najwa Nimri as Alicia Sierra, both of whom are still working in law enforcement at this point in the timeline. What is Berlin up to? Nothing much — he just plans to steal €44 million in a single afternoon.

Despite the character being somewhat morally abhorrent, Berlin won over audiences in the original series thanks to Alonso's magnetism and charisma, portraying a character who hovered electrically between the roles of ally and antagonist. Though he was pretty thoroughly written out of the story at the end of the first heist, Berlin returned for the second big steal via flashbacks — and now those flashbacks have evolved into a fully-fledged TV show. Check out the new teaser trailer for "Berlin," courtesy of Netflix's TUDUM event.

Like the female lead in a '90s rom-com, Berlin wants to have it all. He wants to live, laugh, love, and do all of the above while sleeping on a king size mattress made of cash. The target? One of the top auction houses in Paris. The crew? Possess a very particular set of skills. Berlin? Is trying to smooch the wife of the guy they're robbing. Come on, dude...

The success of "La Casa de Papel" led to a Korean remake, "Money Heist: Korea – Joint Economic Area," which premiered last year and featured "Squid Game" actor Park Hae-soo in the role of Berlin. "Money Heist" stands alongside "Squid Game" as one of Netflix's greatest success stories in the category of non-English language TV shows. Per Netflix's own stats, "Squid Game" is the streamer's No. 1 most-watched international series of all time, with 1.65 billion hours of viewing in the first 28 days of its release. In second place is "Money Heist: Part 5," with 729 million hours.

With a couple of familiar faces already confirmed for the cast, "Money Heist" fans will no doubt tune in to "Berlin" hoping to see some other cameos — perhaps the Professor (Álvaro Morte) or Berlin's bosom buddy Palermo (Rodrigo de la Serna). But even if that doesn't happen, at least we'll get to sing one last "Bella Ciao" for Berlin. Until the next time he pops up, anyway.