Peacock is looking to take the famous feud between Joe Exotic and Carole Baskin to even crazier places with the upcoming series Joe vs Carole. Inspired by the true-life story of the quarrel made famous by Netflix's Tiger King: Murder, Madness and Mayhem, the new Joe vs Carole series presents a scripted take of the story with John Cameron Mitchell (Shrill, The Good Fight) playing Joe Exotic with Kate McKinnon (Saturday Night Live, Ghostbusters: Answer the Call) as Carole Baskin. The streamer has released a teaser trailer for Joe vs Carole and you can watch the video below.
Synopsis: "Joe vs Carole is a scripted adaptation of the 2020 Wondery podcast Joe Exotic: Tiger King, hosted and reported by Robert Moor. The limited series will center on Carole Baskin, a big cat enthusiast, who learns that fellow exotic animal lover Joe 'Exotic' Schreibvogel is breeding and using his big cats for profit. She sets out to shut down his venture, inciting a quickly escalating rivalry. But Carole has a checkered past of her own and when the claws come out, Joe will stop at nothing to expose what he sees as her hypocrisy. The results prove dangerous."
The Tiger King Phenomenon Continues
Etan Frankel serves as showrunner, writer, and executive producer of Joe vs Carole. McKinnon also executive produces with Alex Katsnelson and Wondery's Hernan Lopez, Marshall Lewy, and Aaron Hart. The series stars John Cameron Mitchell, Kate McKinnon, Kyle MacLachlan, Brian Van Holt, Sam Keeley, Nat Wolf, Marlo Kelly, William Fichtner, Dean Winters, and David Wenham.
"Joe vs Carole is a wild ride," Frankel says of the new show. "It's a fun and rich journey into the story of people who live very extreme lives. When I took on this project a year and a half ago, I found Joe Exotic and Carole Baskin to be utterly fascinating, and this crazy tale about two big cat lovers quickly became an important story for me to tell. I hope that when people watch Joe vs Carole just maybe they'll see these people that they thought they knew in a brand-new way."
The statement adds: "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."
As detailed in the Tiger King documentary series, this feud culminates with Joe Exotic landing in prison while Carole Baskin moves on with her life. With Exotic incarcerated, Baskin would go on to appear on Dancing with the Stars. She refused to participate in Tiger King 2 on Netflix and had unsuccessfully attempted to block its release.
Joe vs Carole will start streaming on March 3, 2022, only on Peacock.