Netflix is bringing back teen musical telenovela Rebelde

With the success of its Spanish teen drama Élite and the boom of adolescent classics being rebooted, Netflix decided now’s the perfect time to bring back Rebelde.

As part of its Tudum event, Netflix shared a teaser for its new version of the 2000s Mexican musical telenovela. Those old, very Y2K bright red blazers and striped ties are out (though eagle-eyed viewers will spot them on display in a corner); instead, this new generation gets to wear chic maroon and black uniforms that would put Élite’s Las Encinas students’ own fashionable uniforms to shame. But while it’s a brand new cast and look, there’s still plenty to feel nostalgic about. Netflix’s Rebelde stars sing the theme song in the Elite Way School hallways.

As reported by Variety, the newcomers are: Azul Guaita as Jana Cohen, Sergio Mayer Mori as Estebán, Andrea Chaparro as M.J., Jeronimo Cantillo as Dixon, Franco Masini as Luka Colucci, Lizeth Selene as Andi, Alejandro Puente as Sebastián Langarica-Funtanet and Giovanna Grigio as Emilia. Estefanía Villareal is set to reprise her character from the original Rebelde, Celina Ferrer—who will now be Elite Way School’s principal. Netflix hasn’t revealed yet if others from the original cast will also make cameos. The series is set to arrive on March 1, 2022.

For those who didn’t grow up in Latin American households and have never heard of the original series, Rebelde has a similar plot to Élite’s—but it is more PG. The characters attend a very prestigious school that begins allowing scholarship students. Though there are plenty of clashes between the scholarship kids and the wealthy ones, they find out that what ties them together is their love for music, so they start a group called RBD. The group becomes famous on the show, and in a very meta way, the show turned into a real life pop phenomenon. The cast played tons of sold-out shows all over the world as RBD, releasing nine studio albums. Though the telenovela ended in 2006, RBD kept touring until December 2008, closing the chapter on their characters with the Gira Del Adiós World Tour.