“Vida” may be over, but star Mishel Prada has some ideas for a spin-off.
“You know, who I would love to see as a spin-off is Rocky and Eddy,” Prada said in a recent conversation with TheWrap following the conclusion of the Latinx drama series’ third and final season.
“Their relationship to me is so amazing, and they’re very much of the neighborhood,” she continued. “They represent the neighborhood. So seeing something like that, where Eddy goes past it, would be really wonderful to get to explore.”
The character of Eddy, played by Ser Anzoategui, is the former wife of Emma (Prada) and Lyn’s (Melissa Barrera) late mother, Vidalia, after whom their bar “Vida” is named. Rocky, Eddy’s friend, is played by Adelina Anthony.
But Rocky and Eddy aren’t the only characters that Prada would like to see more of.
“And then seeing what happens to Mari,” she continued. “She, this season, kind of splinters off into something that isn’t just the neighborhood, but what’s happening on a much grander scale,” she said of the character, who is a vocal activist against gentrification in their Boyle Heights, Los Angeles neighborhood.
“She was coming of age as the sisters were coming of age, in her own way. I would love to see where that goes,” Prada said.
“Vida” was the first television show to ever have an all-Latinx writer’s room. But Prada believes it’s only the beginning.
“I love that now there are archetypes that people can point to,” she said. “When you’re pitching a show, you can say, ‘Oh, like a Mari from Vida.’ It creates an image for someone to latch onto.”
While saying goodbye to the show, her first series-regular role on television, was difficult, Prada has a lot of hope for the future.
“There is a mourning, obviously, of an end, but there’s a hope for a beginning. My hope is that it isn’t just about ‘Vida’ — it’s about the shows that are going to come after that. What are we going to then bring into the world from what we learned on that show?”