Is Netflix’s Untamed Royals Based on a True Story?

Netflix’s ‘Untamed Royals’ delves into the hedonistic life of a wealthy heir who has the most decadent pleasures at his fingertips. Yet Xavier Fernandez’s extravagant lifestyle falls short, leading the young boy to seek out the thrill of committing petty crimes with his best friend, Gerardo. As a result, the pair stage a violent robbery at Xavier’s mansion. But when his family enlists the help of a curious detective, Rodrigo Majarrez, Xavier realizes he must keep his stories straight and avoid suspicion at all costs.

It turns out that consequences for the privileged are hard to come by, but someone has to pay the price for their crimes. The Spanish thriller film presents a psychologically compelling account of a group of deeply bored and equally troubled young children whose actions, while baffling, remain predictable. As such, the story embarks on an exploration of privilege and power inequality within the context of class distinctions. But does Xavier Fernandez’s story, surrounded by such realistically relevant themes, have any basis in reality?

Untamed Royals is an exploration of realistic class dynamics

The characters and their stories presented in ‘Untamed Royals’, originally titled ‘Delincuentes’, are not based on real people or incidents. Instead, the film remains a work of fiction brought to the screen by screenwriter Santiago Mohar Volkow under the direction of Humberto Hinojosa Ozcariz. The central premise of the story revolves around a spoiled rich kid who exploits his privileges and condemns others for his actions. The same brings realistic relevance to the story through themes of class inequality and socio-economic prejudice within the legal system. Nevertheless, despite the effortless sense of realism that drives the story, the film remains free of any ties to real-life events.

For the same reason, Xavier’s story gains authenticity and relevance to real life mainly from the careful exploration of the socially charged themes that are present throughout the story. In the film, Xavier and his friend Gerardo consistently engage in illegal activities such as robberies, extortion and even kidnappings as a way to chase a thrill and at the same time take revenge on their families. Despite their rather amateurish methods, however, the duo easily escapes the consequences, protected as they are by their privileges. But instead, the employees of the mansion bear the brunt of their crimes.

Consequently, the story of Xavier and Gerardo remains an example and an allegory of realistic class distinctions and their adverse effects on the poorer classes. The most obvious example of this comes when Xavier’s father rejects even the idea of ​​Gerardo’s involvement in anything untoward, actively blaming his domestic staff without any evidence and only his prejudices. Moreover, the film further reinforces the realism of the story by ensuring that Xavier and Gerardo remain fleshed out and complex characters rather than caricatures of the socio-economic message attached to them. In this way, ‘Untamed Royals’ fictionalizes a story that is relevant to real life without directly drawing inspiration from real events.

Untamed Royals is about wealth, rights and privileges

While “Untamed Royals” finds its storyline as a morally driven tale of class inequality, it distinguishes itself from its contemporaries by adopting the perspective of the exploiters rather than the exploited. Throughout the film, Xavier and Gerardo drive the narrative as they pursue increasingly immoral and illegal thrills without concern for the aftermath. According to a 2012 report in The Journal of Research on Adolescence, delinquency rates among youth living in wealthy neighborhoods were higher than those among middle-class youth.

There are numerous examples of the same phenomenon observed in real life, which led to the birth of the metaphorical disease and social condition of “affluenza”. The determining factor of this condition and its main symptoms remains a discrepancy between an individual’s understanding of his actions and the consequences he can reap. The individuals involved in this phenomenon are usually affluent young children and teenagers.

Thus, Xavier and Gerardo remain prime, albeit fictional, examples of the same. In fact, the film doubles down on its exploration of criminality among the young and wealthy by withholding consequences for its characters until the very end. Even in the dreaded aftermath of the duo’s crimes, neither character loses any substance. Instead, retribution is meted out to innocent, more vulnerable individuals. As a result, the film skillfully uses fictional storytelling to highlight a realistic phenomenon.

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