Netflix's Money Heist prequel series promises super-slick heist action in its first trailer

A shot from Netflix's new Berlin series trailer
(Image credit: Netflix)

We've been waiting ages for this: Berlin, the Money Heist prequel series featuring one of its best characters, is coming to Netflix on December 29 and the trailer has just dropped. As you can see, it looks like everything we could possibly want from a new Netflix show and we're tempted to stay home on New Year's Eve to binge it.

If you thought the original Money Heist was audacious, this takes things to a whole new level. This time around our anti-hero sets up a streaming company and starts hiking the prices until... I kid! Nobody's that evil! The heist this time is a $44 million theft from one of Paris's top auction houses. 

You know what that means: a squad of mis-matched, highly skilled and very dangerous criminals, only some of whom are going to make it to the end. Pedro Alonso's Berlin is going to make it, clearly, because he's in Money Heist. But everything else is up for grabs. 

Who is Berlin?

Pedro Alonso's character's real name is Andrés de Fonollosa, and he's Europe's greatest thief. A wise-cracking, safe-cracking jewel thief who brightened up five full series of the original Money Heist and who was one of the most popular characters among the show's viewers. Alonso brings a wonderful warmth and likability to someone who at heart is a terrible human, and focusing on him for the prequel is an inspired choice.

Berlin might not be the only face we get to see again, though. Announcing Berlin, show creator Álex Pina said that there were "many possibilities" for spinoffs... "I think almost every character of Money Heist has a duality that we would like to see in a spinoff." So if enough of us watch Berlin it could be the beginning of the MHCU –that is, the Money Heist cinematic universe. The question is whether Pina will have time to make more: he's signed a multi-show deal with Netflix that includes very different shows, including a show inspired by the Covid-19 pandemic. 

Berlin premieres on Netflix on December 29.

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Carrie Marshall
Contributor

Writer, broadcaster, musician and kitchen gadget obsessive Carrie Marshall has been writing about tech since 1998, contributing sage advice and odd opinions to all kinds of magazines and websites as well as writing more than a dozen books. Her memoir, Carrie Kills A Man, is on sale now and her next book, about pop music, is out in 2025. She is the singer in Glaswegian rock band Unquiet Mind.