The Chosen One: A traffic accident leaves two dead and six injured in a filming of Netflix

This June 16, an accident close to the filming of The Chosen One, the next Netflix series, claimed the death of two cast members. Two interpreters, in addition to four production workers, were injured, and according to media such as Deadline, they are stable. It happened in Mulegé, on the Baja California peninsula (Mexico), when a van was traveling from the set to the airport. Crossing the desert, the van went off the road and flipped several times, ending up overturning and killing Raymundo Garduño Cruz and Juan Francisco González Aguilar.

Garduño Cruz was an actor and promoter of the Children’s Theater Week, while Aguilar was nicknamed Paco Mufote and was a musician as well as an actor. The recording of The Chosen One took place in Santa Rosalía through an independent production company whose name has not been confirmed, although the link with Netflix was behind a new association with Millarworld, a studio sponsored by Mark Millar and Peter Gross that is in charge of adaptations of his comics. The Chosen One, thus, is based on the graphic novel American Jesus, published by Dark Horse in 2004 and centered on a 12-year-old boy who discovers that he is the risen Christ.

Netflix has not commented on the tragedy, and for now, it is not known if the accident will affect the filming schedule or the planned premiere of the series, which has Everardo Gout (director of the recent The Purge: Infinite ) and his brother Leopold as showrunners. The SAG-AFTRA union, for the rest, is already taking action on the matter: “SAG-AFTRA has contacted Netflix and the Mexican actors union ANDA about the incident and we are investigating the circumstances with the local production. Safety on set is our top priority”, they declare from the agency.

A few hours after knowing what happened, and in the absence of the investigation clarifying it, there has been talking on the Internet of possible negligence. On Facebook, the screenwriter Rick Zazueta has written “a petition for justice”, claiming the responsibility of Gout and the producers. He assures that the filming of The Chosen One had “terrible logistics”, stating that the vehicles were in poor condition and the equipment was transported “like cattle to save a few pesos”. He goes so far as to say that “Netflix also has blood on their hands”.