What We Know So Far About Netflix’s Florence Pugh-Led ‘East of Eden’

In 2024, Netflix confirmed that none other than Florence Pugh would take the lead in a hotly anticipated new series based on a literary classic: the sweeping, tragic East of Eden.

Per Variety, this forthcoming, seven-part reimagining of John Steinbeck’s 1952 magnum opus will “explore the multigenerational saga of the Trask family,” farmers who settle in California’s Salinas Valley in the early 20th century, “focusing new attention on its indelible antihero, Cathy Ames.” Below, watch the official teaser trailer—and then find everything you need to know about the Netflix adaptation of East of Eden:

In the novel, protagonist 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.

It’s a meaty part that a number of formidable actors have made a meal of 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. That said, we absolutely can’t wait to see what Pugh will do with the role.

As we’ve come to expect from a Netflix project, the supporting cast is stellar, including Christopher Abbott as Adam; Mike Faist as Charles; Tracy Letts as Adam and Charles’s father, Cyrus Trask; Martha Plimpton as Faye, the madame; and Your Friends & Neighbors’ Hoon Lee as Lee, the Trasks’ servant.

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 who also happens to be Elia Kazan’s granddaughter—is spearheading the adaptation and will serve as showrunner alongside Jeb Stuart (Die Hard, The Fugitive). Meanwhile, Lion’s Garth Davis and Lady Chatterley’s Lover’s Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre will split directing duties, and Pugh serves as an executive producer.

“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, in a statement accompanying the series’ announcement. “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.”

There’s no official release date yet, but we know the Kazan-helmed, seven-episode adaptation is due to hit Netflix sometime this fall. Filming wrapped in March 2025, so bring on the windswept landscapes and intricate costuming—and the inevitable Emmys.