A sweltering summer night in Argentina’s capital city, Buenos Aires. The honking of nighttime traffic is accompanied by echoes of protests on the streets. The urban sounds die out as thunderclaps rumble within the clouds. A pitter-patter on the ground signals a break from the summer heat. Only this isn’t the arrival of rain but a deadly snowstorm that quickly envelops all life.
As the Argentine Netflix miniseries The Eternaut plays out, it becomes clear that this toxic snowfall represents a threat from beyond this world.
Based on a trailblazing comic of the same name, The Eternaut is a Latin American The Last of Us. The Spanish-language drama might echo the frozen dystopia of Bong Joon Ho’s Snowpiercer (based on the 1982 French graphic novel). And its political commentary and psychological tension might resonate with fans of The Last of Us (currently in its second season). But The Eternaut was a long time coming, and its influential source material predates any influences that might spring up in the viewer’s mind.
So, before you binge on the four-episode series and enter a subzero world of fear, we break down the essentials behind The Eternaut.
1. The Eternaut is a Latin American classic
The Eternaut borrows its title from a cult graphic novel originally serialised in the Argentine magazine Hora Cero from 1957 and 1959. Penned by journalist-writer Héctor Germán Oesterheld and illustrated by Francisco Solano López, it’s a gripping page-turner, with sharply realistic black-and-white artwork and tense dystopian drama.
The story follows protagonist Juan Salvo and his friends and family surviving the aftermath of an apocalyptic snowstorm. Breathing through masks and blanketed in layers, they roam around a ravaged Buenos Aires in what seems like a modern Ice Age. Juan and co encounter survivors teaming up, scavenging for food, or turning against each other. In his seemingly endless journey for survival, Juan becomes the titular Eternaut, an eternal ‘naut’ (Greek for navigator). The threat behind their misery becomes clearer by the end, but Oesterheld’s focus is on toying with existentialist dread instead of just hurling monsters in the readers’ face.
2. It’s an anti-fascist allegory
While The Eternaut’s fears of a nuclear winter and unknown enemies in the sky can be interpreted as allusions to the Cold War, HGO was largely apolitical at this point in his life. This changed in the 1960s with the US intervening in Latin American governments and armed guerrillas rising in resistance. Marking his shift to the political left, HGO’s post-Eternaut comics included a biography of Marxist revolutionary Che Guevara and The Eternaut 1969, a reboot of his magnum opus. The latter remains unfinished as its overtly political themes of collective resistance alerted the close-to-fascist government, and Alberto Breccia’s gnarly horror artwork disillusioned readers.
Come March 1976 and Argentina entered an era of a draconian military coup. The censorship on HGO’s works only strengthened with the writer forced into hiding, much like the characters of his comic. By this time, he and his daughters had joined the leftist anti-military guerrilla group Montoneros. And even in hiding, he managed to complete a sequel comic to The Eternaut. In a tragic turn of events, Oesterheld and his daughters were kidnapped by the military junta in 1977, and the whereabouts of their bodies still remain unknown.
3. This isn’t the first attempt to adapt it
Efforts to adapt The Eternaut for television go back to 1968 when an ad agency acquired the rights for an animated Eternaut series. Each episode would be introduced by Oesterheld and use costly rotoscoping. All that emerged was a 24-minute pilot, followed by a series cancellation.
Many more attempts followed in subsequent decades, including a planned film by Adolfo Aristarain. The Argentine filmmaker eventually backed out because the only way to get this project on board would be with American funding, American actors, and the English language. Aristarain felt this would only water down the graphic novel’s Argentine context. Fast forward to the present, and Netflix has managed to adapt The Eternaut in the desired fashion: a Spanish-language miniseries filmed in Buenos Aires with Argentine actors.
4. The snowflakes are lethal – and complicated
The radioactive snow that triggers the events of The Eternaut looks like… well, snow. But snow is a rarity in Buenos Aires, where the series was filmed. To build its wintry dystopia in interior sets (which were later paired with background shots of real-world locations), the production design team came up with five different kinds of snowflakes.
So, kitchen salt was used as the base for the snow on the floor because it’s good to replicate footprints. Dry foam soap was rained down by propellers to double as the snow falling from the skies. Perlite, the volcanic glass rock that looks like ash, was also used in some of the snow scenes. Some of the snow-covered objects on set were also caked in cellulose, which, when mixed with water, can make for convincing artificial snow.
5. It’s set in a tech-free world
Netflix’s series sticks closely to the source material, even if the setting shifts from the 1950s to present-day Argentina. With exposure to the snow leading to instant death, the characters brave the outdoors in makeshift hazmat suits, echoing pandemic-era realities more than Cold War anxieties. Masks are a life-saving choice, and when Juan and others do venture out, you can spot disinfectant spray ads in the background.
Despite its modern sensibilities, The Eternaut adaptation is also rooted in some old-school style. With phone signals and electricity lost, the characters resort to everything from vintage gizmos and cycle-powered engines to walkie-talkies and radios.
6. Ricardo Darín is its answer to Pedro Pascal
The ensemble cast is led by Argentina movie star Ricardo Darín, best known for Oscar-nominated films like Wild Tales and The Secret in Their Eyes. The role of Juan is his full-fledged debut in a lead role for a streaming series.
7. It’s already a sensation in South America
While the Netflix series will introduce a new generation to The Eternaut, the comic book is already a cultural mainstay in Argentina and beyond. Ever since the fall of the military junta, The Eternaut has been a symbol of collective resistance, class struggle and antiwar sentiment.
Former Argentine president Néstor Kirchner also campaigned for his wife (later also President) Cristina Kirchner with an advertisement of himself as ‘the Eternaut’ (complete with the mask and visor). The date of the publication of the first-ever Eternaut comic strip, September 4, is the official ‘Day of the Argentine Comic’, while the Ministry of Education ordered copies to be distributed to secondary schools in 2010. The masked helmet cover is further immortalised in graffiti and subway murals in Colombia and Uruguay.
Héctor Germán Oesterheld didn’t live to see his homeland's freedom, but The Eternaut's legacy continues.
Will The Eternaut get a second season?
There’s no word on a second run yet but given that Oesterheld wrote a sequel to the comic in 1975, don’t rule it out.
Where can I watch The Eternaut?
All four episodes of The Eternaut land on Netflix worldwide from April 30.
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