Emma Coronel and Rafael Amaya to produce series on El Chapo Guzmán

Emma Coronel and actor Rafael Amaya have announced that they will produce a bilingual series about Joaquín El Chapo Guzmán, which will tell the story from the perspective of the drug lord’s wife. Few details are known so far, but Amaya will also portray the infamous leader of the Sinaloa Cartel.

The project, still untitled, has been described as a fictional crime drama that will explore themes such as power, loyalty, and survival through the personal journey of Coronel, the former beauty queen who met the drug lord when she was 17. Speaking to Deadline, Coronel clarified that El Chapo is not involved in the series, but that he has been an admirer of Amaya for years due to his role in El Señor de los Cielos, in which he played Aurelio Casillas, a character inspired by Mexican drug lord Amado Carrillo Fuentes. “My husband liked Rafael’s work on El Señor de los Cielos, and I know he would be pleased to see Rafael portray him in this project”, she said.

Coronel and Amaya are listed as executive producers alongside Maritza Ramos, through Amaya Productions, and Zero Gravity Management. The production is currently searching for a screenwriter and potential buyers. Deadline also reported that Coronel will not play herself in the series, but will have a say in the casting process, as she has previously expressed dissatisfaction with other portrayals of herself. In parallel with the series, Guzmán’s wife is writing a memoir about the nearly three years she spent in prison in the United States after being convicted on drug trafficking and money laundering charges.

Since regaining her freedom in 2023, Emma Corone l has chosen to remain in the public eye. In 2024, she appeared in a music video for a corrido that tells her story, and she resumed her modeling career, including attending Milan Fashion Week. On Instagram, she has amassed more than 500,000 followers, with whom she shares images of her travels, workout routines, and daily life, including moments with her daughters, whose faces she makes sure to keep hidden.

At the end of last year, she also agreed to tell her story in a documentary broadcast on the U.S. Network Oxygen, where she spoke about her relationship with the drug lord. “I don’t know if I recognized his name. Whenever I say that, people always say, ‘How could you not know? How could you not know if he’s on TV?’ I didn’t have a TV”, she said of their first meeting. “He didn’t talk to me about his work, I didn’t ask him about it, and I didn’t see him while he was working”, she recalled.

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