J.A. Bayona Returns to the Andes for a New Netflix Series Exploring the Untold Story After ‘Society of the Snow’

Following the success of J.A. Bayona’s survival drama Society of the Snow, Netflix is returning to one of the most famous survival stories in modern history. The streaming service has announced a new three-part documentary series called Beyond the Society, which will explore what happened after the survivors of Uruguayan Flight 571 returned home.

The new series is being created by Bayona and Carlos Torres and is scheduled to arrive globally on Netflix in 2026. Unlike the behind-the-scenes documentary released with Society of the Snow in 2024, Beyond the Society will focus on the decades after the tragedy and how the survivors and families of those who died continued living with its impact.

Society of the Snow became one of Netflix’s biggest international successes after its release. The Spanish-language film received strong reviews from audiences and critics while becoming one of the platform’s most-watched non-English movies. The film reportedly earned 98.5 million viewing hours during its first 91 days on Netflix and remained in the global weekly top 10 for 12 weeks.

The success of the movie helped bring new attention to the real events behind Flight 571, which crashed in the Andes mountains in 1972. While the original story focused on the incredible survival of the 16 people who were rescued after 72 days in extreme conditions, Beyond the Society will look at the emotional journey that came after the rescue.

Netflix’s description of the series explains that surviving the crash was only the beginning of another difficult chapter. The documentary will explore how the survivors rebuilt their lives, how the families of those who were lost dealt with their grief, and how the world reacted to their story through books, films, and documentaries.

The series will include new interviews with survivors and relatives of the victims. It will also feature conversations with people who helped tell the story over the years, including author Piers Paul Read, who wrote Alive: The Story of the Andes Survivors, writer Pablo Vierci, whose book Society of the Snow inspired Bayona’s film, filmmaker Frank Marshall, who directed the 1993 movie Alive, and Bayona himself.

One of the most emotional parts of the project came when Bayona and members of the Society of the Snow cast returned to the actual crash site in the Andes, known as the Valley of Tears. For many of the actors, it was their first time visiting the location where the real events happened.

According to a statement shared by Netflix, Bayona explained that the idea for the documentary came from that powerful trip. “The idea for Beyond the Society came about when we decided to travel to the Valley of Tears with the cast of the film. None of the actors had been there, and we felt it was the best way to close a very important chapter of our lives and to thank those who trusted us to tell their story.”

He added that the visit changed how the team viewed the connection between the real survivors and the people who brought their story to the screen. “There, we realized the extent to which the true story and the people who lived the tragedy were already intimately interwoven with those of us who had created the fiction.”

Netflix has also released an early look at the documentary, showing Bayona and the cast traveling through the snowy Andes landscape. The images capture the difficult conditions of the location and the emotional return to the memorial site honoring the victims.

Beyond the Society is produced by Belén Atienza, Sandra Hermida, and J.A. Bayona. The series will arrive on Netflix in 2026.

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