W Studios: With the twist we give to productions like La Historia de Juana we aim to keep audiences loyal to broadcast TV

Adapting a story to modern times without losing the essence that makes it unique is what TelevisaUnivision offers with La Historia de Juana, the Mexican version of Juana la Virgen by Perla Farías. The series will premiere on Monday, June 3, at 9:30 PM on Las Estrellas. The cast, led by Camila Valero and Brandon Peniche, along with the production team from W Studios, headed by Patricio Wills, was recently introduced.

“Juana la Virgen is a long-running story that Perla created about 20 years ago in Caracas. By fate, the rights ended up with TelevisaUnivision. I’ve been pursuing this project for years, but it wasn’t until Farías joined the company that it was decided W Studios would produce it. The series will consist of over 60 episodes, making it a mid-length telenovela, and it was filmed at the Gabriel García Márquez Studios. This is the first production TelevisaUnivision has made at these facilities,” Wills commented.

Patricio Wills: I’ve been pursuing this project for years, but it wasn’t until Perla Farías joined the company that it was decided W Studios would produce it

The executive added, “We’ve reached a point where we need to create telenovela stories that don’t conflict with the genre but bring something bold and new. In this case, it’s about a virgin woman who becomes pregnant due to a medical mix-up. We’re not talking about religion, but rather medical confusion. We believe these small twists in broadcast TV will keep audiences loyal to traditional TV and not abandon it for streaming, which are ultimately complementary platforms. We see this with the products we create for ViX. We’re evolving and always want to offer different stories on broadcast TV.”

Regarding Wills’ approach to bringing this story to Mexican TV, its author Perla Farías said the intention is to respect the essence of the original story while adapting it to the present day: “The core plot is about a young virgin who is accidentally impregnated due to a mix-up with sperm samples. There’s a man who wants to become a father but has limited possibilities, and his samples are mistakenly used. This is the jumping-off point. The basic characters exist in the original version; however, the treatment is different, with some characters disappearing and others being more deeply explored, new pathways, and new aspects in how the protagonists fall in love. The idea was to take the core of the story, which makes it unique, and build something new from there,” Farías explained.

Regarding his character, the male lead Brandon Peniche expressed that this project “represents 22 years of work to get this opportunity. It’s a story that fills me with excitement and challenges because it touches on different themes than what we’re used to seeing on TV. It’s not a traditional telenovela, from the story to the production approach, and we’re very excited to see the high production quality that W Studios is putting into it, making it visually powerful as well.”

La Historia de Juana tells the story of Juana Bravo (Camila Valero), a charming young woman who becomes accidentally pregnant through artificial insemination. Juana meets Gabriel Vega (Brandon Peniche), a man with whom she seemingly has nothing in common, but their lives are destined to intertwine.

The story was originally by the renowned writer Perla Farías. The general direction is handled by Rolando Ocampo and Luis Manzo. In addition to the leads, the cast includes actors such as Fabiola Guajardo, Cynthia Klitbo, Grettel Valdez, Mario Morán, Irina Baeva, Henry Zakka, Isabella Camil, Moisés Arizmendi, Omar Germenos, Carlos Gatica, Daniela Cordero, Luis Gatica, Daniela Cristo, David Lopez, and Alexis Ayala.