Ekstra Bladet: Big Dane in Netflix Series

When the fifth season of the hugely popular Spanish Netflix series Money Heist (La Casa de Papel) premieres on September 3, 2021, parts of the season will not only have been filmed in Copenhagen locations including Nyhavn and Tivoli Gardens, but will also feature a Danish participant.

And a rather special one at that: the four-legged Courage, under the expert guidance of Danish animal communicator Ditte Young.

In fact, the series’ producer and director, Jesús Colmenar, was so impressed by the 143-pound Great Dane that the number of scenes featuring the dog expanded from just one cake scene to seven, as Ditte Young kept sending training videos to the production team.

A Breathless Assignment

Originally, Courage’s son, Calvin, had been cast in the role and trained for it. The dogs were switched just two days before filming was scheduled to begin.

The arrangement with the barking Danish superstar began when Ditte Young received a phone call in June 2020 from a Danish production company asking whether she would help cast a dog for a television series.

When she agreed, she had no idea that the project was the hugely successful Netflix series Money Heist.

Hopeful Dogs

When Ditte began searching for the right Great Dane through a Facebook post, she was inundated with messages from excited and hopeful Great Dane owners who wanted their dogs to audition.

In total, she received more than 180 inquiries.

Ultimately, Courage landed the job and became Denmark’s biggest four-legged television star to date.

You can see the result on Netflix right now.