General · EdgepediaOctober 3, 20267 min read

Brazil '70: The Third Star

Brazil '70: The Third Star (Brasil 70: A Saga do Tri) is a Brazilian drama miniseries that premiered on Netflix on May 29, 2026, dramatizing the Brazilian national soccer team's campaign to its third World Cup title at the 1970 tournament in Mexico.¹ Produced by Netflix in partnership with the Brazilian studio O2 Filmes, the five-episode series follows the squad from its preparation through the final, set against the harshest phase of Brazil's military regime.¹^•²

Key fact	Detail
Premiere	May 29, 2026, on Netflix; all five episodes released at once¹^•³
Format	Five episodes of roughly one hour each, about 325 minutes in total; drama with docudrama elements, rated TV-MA⁴^•⁵
Creators	Naná Xavier and Rafael Dornellas; directed by Paulo Morelli (also showrunner), Pedro Morelli, and Quico Meirelles¹
Lead cast	Lucas Agrícola as Pelé (his acting debut), Rodrigo Santoro as João Saldanha, Bruno Mazzeo as Zagallo⁶
Historical subject	Brazil's third World Cup title, won on June 21, 1970 in Mexico; the 1970 team is the only champion to win every match of both the qualifiers and the tournament⁷
Reception	IMDb rating 7.4/10 from about 1.3K users; three weeks on Brazil's Top 10 Non-English TV list⁸^•⁶
Economic impact	Approximately R$100 million in Brazil, with 3,000 people and 1,200 local vendors employed⁶

Spoilers

Premise

The series opens after Brazil's defeat at the 1966 World Cup, with Pelé reluctant to return to the national team because of his age and the fear of letting his country down again. Coach João Saldanha builds the squad and qualifies Brazil for the tournament, but he is removed from his post after openly clashing with the military dictatorship, which also influenced Brazilian soccer behind the scenes through João Havelange. Mário Zagallo takes over an already assembled team and leads it through the tournament in Mexico.¹^•⁹

Netflix's synopsis frames the story as unfolding during one of the most remarkable periods in both Brazilian soccer and political history, with the team displaying its genius on the pitch under pressure to represent an entire country while the regime's human rights abuses proceed off it.² The players are shown under government surveillance, self-censoring their opinions, and protecting their families, while Pelé in particular struggles with being used by the dictatorship as the face of the country.¹⁰

Cast and characters

Lucas Agrícola, in his acting debut, plays Pelé; reviewers repeatedly noted his physical resemblance to the player. Rodrigo Santoro plays João Saldanha, the coach who built the team, and Bruno Mazzeo plays Zagallo, the only Brazilian to have won the World Cup as both player and coach.⁶^•¹¹ The squad is filled out by Ravel Andrade as Tostão, Hugo Haddad as Félix, Caio Cabral as Carlos Alberto, Gui Ferraz as Jairzinho, Fillipe Soutto as Gérson, and Daniel Blanco as Rivellino. Supporting roles include Marcelo Adnet as Eusébio Teixeira, Bruna Mascarenhas as Rosemeri, Maicon Rodrigues as Paulo Cézar Caju, Nelson Baskerville as João Havelange, Val Perré as Mário Américo, and José Beltrão as Parreira.¹

Episodes

The five episodes, with their Brazilian titles and Netflix English titles, are:¹²

"Pelé, jogai por nós" ("Play for Us, Pelé"), 53 minutes: after a draining 1966, Pelé does not want to play for Brazil again, but Saldanha's encouragement may change his mind.
"Os 11 de Zagallo" ("Zagallo's Eleven"), 1h 5m: without Saldanha, the team heads to Mexico, contending with the heat and the new coach's superstitions.
"Que rei sou eu?" ("What King Am I?"), 1h 3m: facing a strong, united opponent, the players must set political differences aside to keep scoring.
"O fantasma do Maracanazo", 1h 15m: dreaming of the final, the players are haunted by the 1950 loss to Uruguay at the Maracanã.
"Eu não morri", 1h 9m: as the final approaches and pressure mounts, the team's star is not at his best but is far from finished.

Production

The series was filmed between Brazil and Mexico, with Brazilian shooting in São Paulo, Carapicuíba, and Cotia, and Mexican work in Guanajuato and Mexico City.⁶^•¹³ The production invested in a detailed reconstruction of the era, from sets to the atmosphere of the matches, and combined staged match scenes with archive footage and special effects.¹⁴^•¹⁰ For historical accuracy, the jersey maker Athleta, the family-owned company that created the original 1970 Brazil uniform, recreated that kit specifically for the series.⁶ The production was approved for Colombia's CINA (Audiovisual Investment Certificate) incentive, a tax deduction equal to 35 percent of spending on audiovisual services in that country.¹

Reception

The series drew broadly positive professional reviews. Omelete called it an accomplished pop work whose match direction and recreation of iconic moments outclass other soccer productions, praising the characterization of the main trio and the supporting cast.⁹ Common Sense Media rated it 4/5, describing a well-acted docudrama that tells the story from the national team's point of view while flagging frequent profanity, cigarette smoking, and references to human rights violations for a 15+ audience.¹⁰ On IMDb it holds a 7.4/10 weighted rating from about 1.3K users, with later episodes rated higher than earlier ones (8.1 and 8.4 for episodes 4 and 5 against 7.5 for the first three).⁸

Brazilian commentators who lived through the era were more critical. The UOL columnist Juca Kfouri wrote that the series exaggerates fiction and sensationalism, inventing a mortal duel between Pelé and Saldanha that suggests the coach's dismissal was the star's doing, creating fights that never happened, and infantilizing historic players, while still reproducing the team's goals faithfully; he concluded that for viewers who did not live through those days, "it was not as the series shows."¹⁵ A Veja review argued the series errs by portraying a fragile Pelé that departs from his actual personality at the tournament.¹⁶

Context and impact

The historical campaign the series dramatizes remains a benchmark: Brazil sealed its third title on June 21, 1970 in Mexico, and by the Brazilian Football Confederation's account no other country had matched three titles at that point, while the 1970 squad is the only world champion to win every match in both qualifying and the tournament itself.⁷ The 1970 Cup was also the first World Cup broadcast worldwide in color, though in Brazil a pool of channels called Rede Brasileira de Televisão shared the signal, each broadcaster transmitting different stretches of each match.¹⁷

Netflix reported that the production generated approximately R$100 million in Brazilian economic impact, measured with the global Social Accounting Matrix methodology covering job creation, tax payments, and contracts with national suppliers, and that 3,000 people and 1,200 local vendors worked on it.⁶ The series spent three weeks on Brazil's Top 10 Non-English TV list and joined a Netflix soccer collection that includes Mexico 86, Norway: The Dark Horse, Poldi, and USA 94: Brazil's Return to Glory.⁶ An academic review in the journal Recorde: Revista de História do Esporte concluded that, despite its fictional character, the series offers material for historiographic reflection on the relationship between soccer, the national team, and the military dictatorship.¹⁸

References

Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Series and fictional screen worlds › International serial drama and telenovelas › Telenovelas and Latin American/Iberian serials › Brazilian novelas

Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026

Notice something wrong?