As we reported over the weekend, fugitive drug kingpin Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, the head of Mexico’s notorious Sinaloa drug cartel, was recaptured last week, and Sean Penn has the scoop. The whole thing was straight out of a telenovela, and now, according to The Hollywood Reporter, Jane The Virgin creator Jennie Snyder Urman says that these recent El Chapo developments will be dealt with on the CW show.
Less than 24 hours after the news broke, Urman was already thinking about how it might affect the characters in the Jane universe: “I’m very interested in the Hollywood connection,” Urman told THR at the Television Critics Association’s winter press tour on Sunday. “I feel like because it just happened yesterday, I’m still processing what it is and what would mean in the Jane world and what that event was, but I feel like we’re going to have some specific reaction to that, certainly.”
Jane The Virgin’s villain, Sin Rostro, is a drug lord whose story and escape in season one was influenced by the real-life El Chapo. “Before he escaped the second time, that was the inspiration,” Urman said. “I had seen that article about the escape and about the tunnel system when they got him—that’s why we put the tunnels in the hotel for Sin Rostro, so he looms in our minds, certainly.” Sin Rostro hasn’t been seen all season, but Urman has hinted that she will be making her grand return soon. The ever-versatile Bridget Regan plays Sin Rostro in the first season, but with all the talk about the character’s access to plastic surgery, it’s possible that Sin Rostro will have an entirely new face when she reappears.
The El Chapo news comes just as Urman plans to bring back Sin Rostro: “There will be a lot of cards uncovered with Sin Rostro,” Urman said at the TCA press tour. “She will show up again, and we’ll find out what she’s looking like now.” Urman also teased some other characters that will make appearances in the back half of the second season, including Petra’s new baby and “someone surprising” from Petra’s past (Petra has become the queen of surprise visits). Urman also gave some details about Rogelio’s new time-traveling telenovela, in which he’ll star as basically a feminist Time Lord. Can the CW pick that up, please?
Jane The Virgin returns to Monday nights on the CW on January 25, 2016.