Netflix’s six-part adaptation of Argentina’s most famous comic arrives with a built-in problem: everyone who matters has already read it. The Eternaut premiered on 30 April 2025, created by Bruno Stagnaro and drawn from Héctor Germán Oesterheld and Francisco Solano López’s The Eternaut, first published in 1957. Ricardo Darín plays Juan Salvo. The snow falls, millions die, and something invisible follows.
Trailer, via Netflix.
A Snowfall Over Buenos Aires
The premise is simple and it holds. One night, a mysterious snowfall kills most of the population of Buenos Aires. Juan Salvo and his friends survive. Life afterward is a struggle, and then they learn the snow was only the opening move of an extraterrestrial attack. The series states its own thesis plainly: the only way to stay alive is to join together and fight. No one survives alone.
Darín at 68
Darín was in negotiations in March 2023 and confirmed that April. He called the show “an updated version” built to reach beyond local audiences. His casting drew argument over the age gap between him and the comic’s Juan Salvo, a man in his thirties. Stagnaro doubted it at first, given the physicality. The fix was smart: an older Salvo justifies the gun knowledge, uncommon in Argentina, and the Truco games with friends.
Six Episodes, One Night
Netflix and K&S Films produced. Stagnaro directed, with one of Oesterheld’s grandchildren supervising. Carla Peterson plays Elena, César Troncoso is Alfredo Favalli, Andrea Pietra is Ana, Ariel Staltari is Omar, Marcelo Subiotto is Lucas, Orianna Cárdenas is Inga.
| Element | The Eternaut (2025) |
|---|---|
| Source | Comic first published 1957 |
| Creators | Oesterheld and Solano López |
| Showrunner | Bruno Stagnaro |
| Lead | Ricardo Darín as Juan Salvo |
| Episodes | 6 |
| Premiere | 30 April 2025 |
| Renewal | Second season, May 2025 |
The Renewal That Matters
Netflix renewed it in May 2025. Reviews were generally favorable. That renewal is the real verdict, and it is more interesting than the score. Six episodes is a short runway for a story this large, and the first season spends most of its time on the snowfall and the aftermath rather than the invaders.
What the Age Gap Buys
The Darín controversy is the most useful thing about this production. An older Salvo is not a compromise; it is the reason the character works in a modern Buenos Aires. A thirty-year-old with a gun safe would strain belief. A sixty-eight-year-old who plays cards with friends does not.
Score: 7.5 of 10
The Eternaut is faithful, well-cast and careful. It is also cautious. The comic’s scale and dread are present in outline, and Darín carries the quieter stretches, but six episodes barely scratch the invasion. The second season is where this either becomes essential or stays respectable. For now: 7.5 of 10.
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