Amazon Freevee Picks Up Neo-Western Casa Grande

Casa Grande, a bilingual limited series examining California’s migrant workforce, has been picked up to stream exclusively on Amazon Freevee in the U.S.

Created by Lauren Swickard (A California Christmas) and Ali Afshar, Casa Grande follows the intertwining lives of various families in the farmlands of northern California. It uses the framework of conventional character drama to explore universal themes of class, immigration, culture and family.

Casa Grande dramatizes the everyday realities and conflicts between California’s hardworking, often undocumented migrant workforce and the wealthy landowners who reap the profits.

The ensemble cast includes John Pyper-Ferguson (The 100, Suits), Christina Moore (That ’70s Show, 90210), Madison Lawlor (Juniper), Karen Bethzabe (Babylon), Javier Bolaños (All American), Raquel Dominguez (Chicago Med), James Marsters (Buffy the Vampire Slayer), Kate Mansi (Days of Our Lives), Daniel Edward Mora (Coco), Loren Escandon (The Baxters) and Ali Afshar (He’s Just Not That Into You).

It is directed by Gabriela Tagliavini (Despite Everything) and written by Alex Ranarivelo, Michael Cruz and Swickard, who also serves as the series showrunner. Series executive producers are Ava Rettke and Daniel Aspromonte.

All five one-hour episodes of the English- and Spanish-language limited series will premiere on May 1 exclusively on Freevee in the U.S.

Casa Grande marks the debut series from Afshar’s ESX Entertainment (A California Christmas, I Believe in Santa, Holiday Harmony, A Christmas Mystery).

Afshar said, “We molded Casa Grande as a Hispanic-influenced Yellowstone and feel the story will resonate powerfully with audiences appreciating elevated western themes and cultures presented through a different prism. Amazon Freevee is the perfect service for audiences to discover and binge the world of Casa Grande, where the intensity never lets up, and the traditional good versus evil trope becomes skewed and more challenging to accept.”

“I’m immensely proud of the Casa Grande team for bringing authenticity to the forefront in ESX Entertainment’s debut series,” added Swickard. “Now more than ever, it’s important to deliver powerful, genuine stories, and Casa Grande does just that. By touching on real-life themes related to family, class, culture and the never-ending pursuit of the American dream, our multi-layered narrative will captivate audiences of all backgrounds.”

“Our ensemble cast of Casa Grande is made of rich and in-depth characters from both Latin and American families as they toil with the pressures of old tradition versus the promises of the new,” said Rettke. “We hope this will resonate as much with our audiences as it has with the filmmakers and real-life farmers and landowners with whom we worked closely to make this series.”