Sofia Vergara is unrecognizable as ‘cocaine queen’ Griselda Blanco
Move over, Narcos.
The first look is here of Sofia Vergara starring as “cocaine queen” Griselda Blanco in the upcoming Netflix limited series, “Griselda.”
Vergara, 51, fresh off of her announced divorce from Joe Manganiello, 46, looks unrecognizable in new images of the show.
Vergara will play Griselda Blanco, the Colombian drug cartel boss.
“Griselda Blanco was a larger-than-life character whose ruthless but ingenious tactics allowed her to rule a billion-dollar empire years before many of the most notorious male kingpins we know so much about,” Vergara said in a statement when the show was first announced in November 2021.
The 6-episode show will be about the rise and fall of the Colombian crime matriarch, who was killed in a drive-by shooting by an assassin on a motorcycle in 2012 at age 69.
Blanco headed one of the most lucrative cartels in history and helped turn Miami into a war zone in the 1980s.
She also infamously had a penchant for killing — or ordering the deaths of — all of her husbands, which earned her the nickname “The Black Widow.” She also had the nickname “The Godmother.”
Her drug empire rotated around from Queens, New York, in the late ‘60s and early ‘70s, to Miami in the ‘80s. She’s also featured prominently in Billy Corben’s 2006 acclaimed documentary “Cocaine Cowboys” and its 2008 sequel, “Cocaine Cowboys 2: Hustlin’ With the Godmother.”
“GRISELDA is inspired by the life of the savvy and ambitious Griselda Blanco, who created one of the most profitable cartels in history,” the official description of the show reads. “In 1970s-80s Miami, Blanco’s lethal blend of unsuspected savagery and charm helped her expertly navigate between business and family, leading her to become widely known as ‘the Godmother.’”
She was arrested in 1985 and charged with conspiring to manufacture, import and distribute cocaine. After being sentenced to 15 years in prison, Blanco was released in 2004.
Vergara is executive producing “Griselda” too. Although it’s similar in subject matter to “Narcos,” it’s not a spinoff of that hit cocaine drama.
However, it is executive produced by “Narcos” and “Narcos: Mexico” showrunner and directing team Andrés Baiz and Eric Newman.
Newman was also behind the drama “Painkiller” about the opioid epidemic and the Sackler family. He recently told The Post that his time “studying and chronicling drug traffickers” led him to see “similarities” between the two series.
“Griselda” premieres Jan. 25, 2024 on Netflix.
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