Peacock released the full trailer for Joe vs. Carole on Thursday, the scripted adaptation of the 2020 podcast Joe Exotic: Tiger King.
John Cameron Mitchell (Hedwig and the Angry Inch) and Saturday Night Live cast member Kate McKinnon star as Joseph Maldonado-Passage, better known as Joe Exotic, and big cat conservationist Carole Baskin, respectively, whose acrimonious, years-long feud resulted in a murder for hire plot that landed Exotic with a 20-plus year prison sentence. The limited series will purportedly allow viewers to finally “discover the untold origin of America’s wildest feud.”
Joe vs. Carole will specifically explore the criminal case of Exotic, who threatened Baskin repeatedly before eventually being arrested and convicted of plotting her murder. The series also stars Kyle MacLachlan as Howard Baskin, Dean Winters as Jeff Lowe, Brian Van Holt as John Reinke, and Nat Wolff as Exotic’s ill-fated, late second husband, Travis Maldonado.
The saga of Exotic and Baskin was likewise featured in the Netflix breakout smash hit docuseries Tiger King, which can partly attribute its success to premiering just a week into the COVID-19 lockdown in March 2020. Netflix later released a second season, Tiger King 2, on Nov. 17, 2021, and a third season, Tiger King: The Doc Antle Story, on Dec. 10, 2021.
However, as the new series promises, the sensational docuseries that had gripped America apparently only told half of the story.
Joe vs. Carole will premiere March 3, 2022, on NBC’s Peacock streaming service.