Wagner Moura sees Narcos (2015) as his official entrance in the international film industry, because Elysium (2013) seemed more like an experience, since his character didn't have a big relevance.
Pedro Pascal felt uncomfortable in 1980s fashions ("I looked like a kid.") so he decided to make Peña's wardrobe a character trait: "Let's just say Javier Peña is like Don Draper, in that the 70s is where he really found himself... and so he's stuck there. He's not throwing those pants out, he's not changing his hair, he's not changing his shoes. It's his time, and he's gonna look like that until the day he dies."
Season 1 and 2 take place between 1979-93 with Season 3 picking up in 1994.
The dialogue was originally planned to be entirely in English, but the producers decided shortly before filming to switch to Spanish. This left the Brazilian lead actor, Wagner Moura at a loss, as he didn't speak the language. He wound up moving to Colombia for the few months before production and took a crash course at the local university.
During his peak, Pablo smuggled $70 million worth of cocaine every week amounting to about $20 billion profits a year making him one of the richest men in the world. It is said that he spent approximately $3000 in buying rubberbands for his money each month. Rats nibbled at 10 percent of his money amounting to a loss of $2 billion each year.