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4w ago

Netflix’s 'A Widow’s Game' Revives Spain’s 'Black Widow' Murder Case

Critics have scrutinized the film’s multi-perspective structure for undermining its portrayal of María Jesús Moreno Cantó’s orchestration of her husband’s 2017 killing.

Ivana Baquero plays the titular widow Maje in A Widow's Game.
Ivana Baquero as Maje in 'A Widow's Game'.
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Overview

  • Netflix released 'A Widow’s Game' on May 30, 2025, charting the scheme by María Jesús Moreno Cantó—dubbed Spain’s 'Black Widow'—to kill her husband in Valencia.
  • Investigators uncovered phone taps showing Maje manipulated hospital janitor Salvador Rodrigo Lapiedra to lie in wait and fatally stab Antonio Navarro Cerdán in their garage on August 16, 2017.
  • Maje and Salvador were arrested in January 2018 and convicted in October 2020, receiving 22-year and 17-year sentences for premeditated murder and facing joint damages of €250,000.
  • While incarcerated, Maje gave birth to a child in July 2023 fathered by another inmate and now resides with the baby in the prison’s mother-child unit.
  • Critics have commended the cast’s performances but faulted the film’s fragmented narrative and abrupt conclusion for undermining its true-crime depth.