Gabriel Iglesias, Allen Maldonado & Steph Beatriz on Maya and the Three

Netflix’s Mesoamerican animated series Maya and the Three is now streaming and features a star-studded cast that includes Zoe Saldana, Diego Luna, Allen Maldonado, Stephanie Beatriz, and Gabriel Iglesias.

“In a fantastical world, where magic turns the world and four kingdoms rule the lands, a brave and rebellious warrior princess named Maya is about to celebrate her fifteenth birthday and coronation,” says the official synopsis. “But everything changes when the gods of the underworld arrive and announce that Maya’s life is forfeit to the God of War — a price she must pay for her family’s secret past. If Maya refuses, the whole world will suffer the gods’ vengeance. To save her beloved family, her friends, and her own life, Maya embarks on a thrilling quest to fulfill an ancient prophecy that foretells the coming of three great warriors who will help her defeat the gods and save humankind.”

ComingSoon Editor-in-Chief Tyler Treese spoke to Maya and the Three stars Gabriel Iglesias, Allen Maldonado, and Stephanie Beatriz about their roles in the Netflix series.

Tyler Treese: Gabriel, you are probably approached with roles that really just want you to kind of be “Fluffy” and bring your stand-up comedy to the role. Picchu isn’t really that, and he’s a tender yet tough warrior. How refreshing was this for you to do?

Gabriel Iglesias: Well, first of all, epic background and, you know what, let me fire my guy, Juan. Look, he’s got a way better background than I got. What’s going on? [laughs] Anyway, doing Picchu was very different because most of the animated characters that I play are so just over the top and really full of energy, whereas Picchu is very serious. Everything has so much depth to it, whereas everything else is just so all over the place. This one’s very, very different and there’s a lot of emotion in it, which a lot of the other characters that I’ve played in the past, it’s just been fun and silly and cute. And this is like, “Ooh, wow, here we go.”

Allen, Rico is a very interesting character. He has this very tragic backstory and he doesn’t really want to use that peasant magic as a result. It’s an interesting element for the character, especially because you are one of the more comedic members of the group. What did you find interesting about that blend?

Allen Maldonado: Gabriel could speak on it, too, as the saying is that a lot of comedians have a dark history and dark past. It comes from a dark place. I think that’s in his character as well, as far as his dark past with his father and everything like and he tries to cope with it with comedy. [laughs] He’s just trying to find a fun place within the pain.

Stephanie, there’s a tight camaraderie between the group of heroes here. Can you speak to just how your character fits into that dynamic and how fun that was to record?

Stephanie Beatriz: I think all three of the three are really, in a way, misfits in their own worlds. Each of them is trying to find their place in the world. I think what was done really well was on the page, you could see the camaraderie built within the jokes and the back and forth that they have immediately. And it really speaks to what animation can do really well is create that connection with just writing like on the page and then have us come in and try to create that connection with our voices because none of us recorded. It’s just like a quilt that’s being put together later.

I think it really speaks so highly of Jorge Gutierrez’s vision of this world because he was able to connect these performances and really make the three, but also Maya, feel like a real team together, even though none of us recorded at the same time. As somebody who’s watched most of the series now already, it shows. It’s really beautiful. It’s really funny. We play off of each other really well. It’s has been a gift to be part of this process.