Brace Yourself for the Ravishing New ‘East of Eden’ on Netflix

Before she dons Princess Irulan’s regal robes once again for Dune: Part Three this winter, Florence Pugh is taking center stage in another sweeping epic: a new Netflix retelling of the tragic literary classic East of Eden. Now, it finally has a release date.

The seven-part series, an ambitious reimagining of John Steinbeck’s 1952 magnum opus, will land on the streaming platform on 1 October. Per its log line, “the multigenerational saga follows the Trask family,” farmers who settle in California’s Salinas Valley in the early 20th century, “through generations shaped by ambition, betrayal and the haunting, indelible antihero Cathy Ames.”

Close-up of a young woman’s face in warm, low light, looking upward with a calm, wary expression while being held from behind by another person.

In the novel, Cathy is depicted as evil incarnate – a swooningly beautiful blonde who is fully aware of the power she has over people. As a teenager she burns down her family home, killing her parents; entrances and then marries the novel’s hero, Adam; seduces his brother, Charles; gets pregnant and unsuccessfully attempts to abort it; and flees her family soon after giving birth to twins, shooting her husband in the shoulder when he attempts to stop her. She then changes her name to Kate, begins working in a brothel, poisons its madam, and takes over, transforming it into a den of sexual sadism. Her story eventually ends with her committing suicide.

Bearded man in a black suit seated center, flanked by two formally dressed companions in a floral garden setting with a column on the right.

It’s a meaty part that a number of formidable actors have gotten their teeth into in the past: Jo Van Fleet won a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for playing Cathy in Elia Kazan’s 1955 East of Eden, co-starring James Dean, while Bond girl Jane Seymour snagged a Golden Globe nod for her own saucy portrayal in a 1981 miniseries. But this new take is billed to give Cathy more space than ever before – and actually flesh out her backstory and motivations in a way that the book never truly manages to.

Young man wearing a brown hat and overalls stands beside a dark horse tied with rope, in front of a weathered barn.

As we’ve come to expect from Netflix, the supporting cast is stellar: alongside Pugh’s Cathy, there’s Poor Things’s Christopher Abbott as Adam, Challengers’s Mike Faist as Charles, and Hoon Lee as Lee, the Trask family’s Chinese-American servant, as well as luminaries Tracy Letts, Ciarán Hinds and Martha Plimpton in smaller roles.

Two men in period clothing stand by a horse in a fenced, rural setting at sunset; one holds a book while the other wears a wide-brimmed hat and speaks to the horse.

They’ll be joined by We Were Liars’s Joseph Zada and Joe Anders (the son of Kate Winslet and Sam Mendes) as Cal and Aron, Cathy and Adam’s twin sons.

Young person with curly hair wearing a gray shirt sits outdoors by a lake, looking toward someone off camera.

The behind-the-scenes team is equally impressive. Zoe Kazan – the actor best known for her work in The Big Sick, The Plot Against America and She Said, who penned the Carey Mulligan and Jake Gyllenhaal-led Wildlife with her partner, Paul Dano, and also happens to be Elia Kazan’s granddaughter – is spearheading the adaptation and will serve as showrunner alongside Jeb Stuart. Meanwhile, Lion’s Garth Davis and Lady Chatterley’s Lover’s Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre will split directing duties, and Pugh has signed on as an executive producer.

Two people in period clothes stand in a field facing each other, with withered plants in the foreground.

Pugh’s Cathy and Faist’s Charles. Geoffrey Short

“In the process of bringing this family saga to life, the resonance of my own familial connection to the material has not been lost on me,” Kazan told Netflix when the project was first announced. “But it is Steinbeck’s writing – personal, shocking, profound and free – that has kept me enthralled by East of Eden since I first read the book as a young teen. Working on this has been the greatest joy.”

A bearded man comforting two children in a close hug in a dimly lit room.

So, bring on the windswept landscapes, intricate costuming and the inevitable Emmys – and watch the ravishing first trailer below.

This article was originally published on British Vogue.

Radhika Seth

Author

Radhika Seth is a film and culture editor at British Vogue. Prior to this role, she held editorial positions at several publications including Condé Nast Traveler. She holds a Bachelor's degree from the University of Oxford where she studied English language and literature.

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