Thai Cave Rescue

The Netflix miniseries is at least the fourth retelling of the incredible 2018 rescue. Its creators strived to set it apart through authenticity.

But those behind the show hope that their efforts help bring a new perspective to the story, and appeal to audiences in Thailand. All 12 boys and their coach Ekapol Chanthawong, or “Coach Ek,” were eventually rescued, though retired Thai navy diver Saman Kunam lost his life during the operation. “To have that kind of access and be able to ask the questions on the ground with the people who were actually inside the cave stuck, like the boys, was invaluable,” director Kevin Tancharoen tells TIME. “I just think that point of view is something that sometimes gets missed in other projects because it’s mainly focused on the mechanics and just how difficult the task at hand was on a technical level.” “He and his brother were both on the team and they’re both in the show and they just happened to not go to the cave that day. Filming at the real location was no easy task, and the weather didn’t help. The show’s creators say that having locals, who would speak the regional dialects and knew the area, was important for the project’s authenticity. “The last thing we wanted to do was re-traumatize kids who had gone through something so incredible, and fraught,” she says. When it came to finding actors to play the boys, the miniseries cast locals from Northern Thailand—most of them without prior acting experience—who worked with an acting coach to get them screen-ready. Miller says that she and Gunn were both apprehensive about working with the boys to tell their stories. “The boys are the heart and soul of our series,” showrunner Dana Ledoux Miller, who created and wrote the show with Michael Russell Gunn, tells TIME. Netflix’s new series is one of many adaptations of the rescue story for the big and small screen.