Netflix is returning to the story behind Society of the Snow, but its next project will look beyond the plane crash and the struggle for survival in the Andes.
Beyond Society is a three-part documentary series about Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571 and the lives shaped by the tragedy during the five decades that followed. Netflix has confirmed a global release in 2026, although no official release date has been announced.
The series will include survivors, relatives of the people who died, writers and filmmakers who have documented the events, as well as a large part of the cast of J.A. Bayona’s acclaimed feature film. Netflix has not yet identified the participating actors by name.
What the Beyond Society Netflix documentary will cover
Beyond Society is not simply another reconstruction of the October 1972 crash. Its central question is what happened after the 16 survivors returned home and how the experience continued to affect them, their families and the families of those who did not return.
Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571 was carrying 45 passengers and crew members, including people connected to Uruguay’s Old Christians Club rugby team, when it crashed in the Andes while traveling to Chile. Twenty-nine people survived the initial accident. After 72 days in the mountains, 16 were eventually rescued.
Those events have been retold through interviews, books, documentaries and feature films. The new series will examine how those public interpretations developed while many of the people closest to the tragedy lived with its private consequences.
That approach should give the documentary a different perspective from productions focused mainly on the crash, the conditions in the mountains or the extraordinary rescue. It will instead explore memory, grief, survival and the difficult process of rebuilding a life after an experience that became known around the world.
Survivors, families, writers and filmmakers will participate
Netflix says the documentary will bring several groups together in the same production for the first time. Confirmed participants include:
- Survivors of Flight 571
- Relatives of passengers who died
- Piers Paul Read, author of Alive: The Story of the Andes Survivors
- Pablo Vierci, author of Society of the Snow
- Frank Marshall, director of the 1993 film Alive
- J.A. Bayona, director of the feature film Society of the Snow
A large part of the Society of the Snow cast also traveled to the Andes for the documentary. However, the announcement does not name individual actors, so appearances by Enzo Vogrincic, Agustín Pardella, Matías Recalt or other specific cast members should not yet be treated as confirmed.
J.A. Bayona and Carlos Torres lead the project
Beyond Society was created by J.A. Bayona and Carlos Torres. Torres directs the three episodes, while Belén Atienza, Sandra Hermida and Bayona serve as producers.
Bayona has explained that the idea developed when the filmmakers arranged for much of the movie’s cast to visit the Valley of Tears, the remote area associated with the crash. The actors had not previously visited the site, even though the feature film used exterior material recorded in the real Andes alongside extensive filming in Spain’s Sierra Nevada.
The journey was originally intended to help the actors and filmmakers close an important chapter and acknowledge the survivors and families who trusted them with the story. According to Bayona, the visit instead revealed how closely the real experiences and the fictional representation had become connected.
That trip now provides one of the documentary’s main narrative threads. It creates a meeting point between the people who lived through the events and those who later represented them on screen.
How Beyond Society differs from the existing making-of documentary
Netflix already offers Society of the Snow: Who Were We on the Mountain?, a behind-the-scenes documentary about the production of Bayona’s film. It features cast members, crew, the director and real survivors while examining the creative process.
Beyond Society has a broader historical and personal focus. Rather than concentrating on how the feature was made, it will follow the consequences of Flight 571 across approximately 50 years.
The presence of Piers Paul Read, Pablo Vierci, Frank Marshall and Bayona will also allow the series to consider how different generations interpreted the same events. Read’s book became one of the best-known early accounts, Marshall directed the English-language drama Alive, and Vierci’s work formed the foundation of Bayona’s Spanish-language film.
The new documentary can therefore examine not only the tragedy itself, but also the way storytelling has influenced public understanding of it.
Why Netflix is revisiting Society of the Snow
Society of the Snow reached a large international audience after arriving on Netflix. At the time of writing, Netflix’s official all-time ranking places it third among the platform’s most popular non-English-language films, with 98.5 million views during its first 91 days.
The film also received two Academy Award nominations, for Best International Feature Film and Best Makeup and Hairstyling. Its reception introduced many viewers to the Flight 571 story through a production made in Spanish and developed with substantial involvement from survivors and victims’ families.
However, popularity alone does not explain the documentary’s potential value. The best-known versions of this history often end with the rescue. By continuing beyond that moment, Beyond Society may provide more space for the long-term experiences of the survivors and the relatives of those who died.
When will Beyond Society be released on Netflix?
Netflix says Beyond Society, also titled Más allá de la sociedad in Spanish, will be released globally in 2026.
No official release date has been announced. Netflix has also not released a trailer, episode titles, runtimes or a complete list of cast members appearing in the documentary.
Those details are likely to arrive closer to the premiere. Until then, the confirmed information is that the project contains three episodes, is directed by Carlos Torres and will connect testimony from the real Flight 571 community with the writers, filmmakers and actors who helped tell its story to later generations.
Beyond Society appears designed to move the conversation beyond survival and toward the question of what it means to live for decades after an event the world never stopped discussing. Which part of the Flight 571 story do you hope the documentary examines most carefully?
Comments
Post a Comment