The series ‘Cortés y Moctezuma’ supposed to star Javier Bardem, focused on the story of 16th century Aztec ruler Montezuma and Spanish explorer Hernan Cortés (Bardem’s character). The script was written in the 1960’s by Dalton Trumbo (now blacklisted due to communist beliefs) with the intent to be a full-length feature film. 

The script started to be adapted for the series in 2014, with Amazon picking it up in 2018. After announcing the cancellation Amazon released this statement, “In the current climate, there is unfortunately no way to remount the production in the near future to achieve the scale and scope that was intended and that the series deserves. We have nothing but admiration and respect for Javier, Tenoch, Yoshira, Gael, Diego, Steve Zaillian, and the entire cast and crew of the series and hope we can work together again in the future.”