It’s been almost two years since the Tiger King story took the streaming world by storm, thanks to a captive audience trapped at home during the start of the pandemic. Peacock has now unveiled the first trailer for its limited series, Joe vs Carole, which takes a deeper dive into the real lives of Joe Exotic and animal activist Carole Baskin. Based on the “Joe Exotic” Wondery podcast, the limited series stars Kate McKinnon as Baskin and John Cameron Mitchell as her adversary, Joseph Schreibvogel, aka “Joseph Maldonado-Passage,” aka “Joe Exotic.”
In a note provided by Peacock, here’s how executive producer Etan Frankel described casting the two leads for the series that will be a “fun and rich journey into the story of people who live very extreme lives.”
We knew it would take two extraordinary actors to portray these larger-than-life people as the complex, three-dimensional individuals that they are. John Cameron Mitchell is one of the most gifted and thoughtful actors I’ve ever worked with. He cares so deeply about the work, and his performance is breathtaking. And Kate McKinnon is simply remarkable. She is able to make us double over with laughter one moment and then break our hearts the next. It was an absolute thrill to watch these two exceptional actors morph into these roles.
While their story continues to captivate audiences, the Baskin and Exotic have not exactly fared well since the Tiger King story blew up in 2020. Exotic failed to secure a pardon while serving a prison sentence for attempting to have Baskin killed via murder for hire. As for Baskin, she’s currently suing Netflix away from using her or her cats in Tiger King 2, which she wants absolutely nothing to do with.
Joe vs. Carole starts streaming March 3 on Peacock.
