‘East Of Eden’ Trailer: Evil Lurks “Cloaked In Goodness” In Zoe Kazan’s Limited Series Take On John Steinbeck’s Novel

The full trailer for Netflix’s East of Eden limited series adaptation has arrived.

Zoe Kazan’s take on John Steinbeck’s classic 1952 novel will premiere on Netflix October 1.

“I believe there are monsters born in this world to human parents. A monster is a variation from the accepted normal,” Florence Pugh’s Cathy Ames says in the beginning of the clip. A child may be born perfect, but without kindness or conscience.

The show will explore the multigenerational saga of the Trask family, focusing new attention on its indelible antihero, Cathy Ames (Pugh), who shows up to the Trask brothers’ home bloody and crawling, disrupting the brotherhood between Christopher Abbott’s Adam Trask and Mike Faist’s Charles Trask, descended from Cyrus Trask (Tracy Letts).

“Can you tell me your name?” Adam asks her upon her refreshment.

“You may call me Cathy,” she replies.

Adam thinks Cathy, “brightens the whole house” despite not having left her room much.

Charles worries for his brother, claiming “A girl like that doesn’t just fall out of the sky. She’s going to tear you to pieces, and I don’t want to watch it.”

Adam proposes marriage to Cathy, promising protection and happiness.

“Evil is not always apparent at first glance,” Cathy continues narrating. “It can come cloaked in goodness, or beauty, or love. The heart of our oldest stories.”

Here she hints at the ties to the Biblical tale of Cain and Abel, which serves as a framework for East of Eden.

The series also stars Martha Plimpton as Faye; Ciarán Hinds as Samuel Hamilton; Joseph Zada as Cal Trask; Joe Anders as Aron Trask and Hoon Lee as Lee.

Later on in the trailer, Adam is advised not to leave his and Cathy’s twin boys (Zada and Anders) fatherless when they are already without a mother.

“I fear father damned us to the wrong fates,” Faist’s voiceover says, calling back to the boys’ childhood raised by Cyrus.

East of Eden hails from co-studios Fifth Season and Anonymous Content. The series was filmed across multiple locations in New Zealand.

Kazan wrote the screen adaptation of the novel, which was previously turned into a 1955 movie directed by her grandfather, Elia Kazan. She serves as co-showrunner alongside Jeb Stuart. The two and Pugh executive produce alongside Garth Davis, who directs episodes 1-4; Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre, who directs episodes 5-7; Antoine Douiahy; and Zack Hayden.

Nearly four years after the limited series starring Florence Pugh was first announced, Netflix unveiled the first trailer for the seven-episode epic during its upfront presentation on Wednesday, May 13. The series was then teased to launch in fall 2026.

Watch the teaser trailer below, and scroll on to find more new photos from the show.