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.
Who else will appear in East of Eden?
Photo: Getty Images
Photo: Getty Images
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.
Who’s behind the camera on East of Eden?
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.”
When will East of Eden be released on Netflix?
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.
