Hey all you cool cats and kittens, get ready for your first look at Kate McKinnon as “Tiger King”‘s Carole Baskin in the new teaser for the Peacock series “Joe vs Carole”.
The new series stars McKinnon as cat enthusiast Baskin, “Hedwig And The Angry Inch”‘s John Cameron Mitchell as her nemesis Joe Exotic and Kyle MacLachlan as Baskin’s husband Howard.
Based on the popular “Joe Exotic” Wondery podcast, the eight-episode limited series will explore the now-familiar escalating tensions between Baskin and zoo owner Exotic, culminating in the latter allegedly ordering a hit on the Big Cat Rescue owner.
READ MORE: 10 Things We Learned From Joe Exotic’s ‘Tiger King’ Book
Hey all you cool cats and kittens…the claws are officially out on March 3 with #JOEvsCAROLE streaming only on Peacock. pic.twitter.com/ZT48sLfbBr
— Peacock (@peacockTV) January 21, 2022
Speaking to Metro, Baskin reacted to the tease, telling the outlet, “My husband and I look forward to seeing Kate McKinnon and Kyle McLaughlin’s portrayal of us, even though we expect it will be a parody based on the trailer. Both are talented actors and I expect Joe vs Carole will be a lot more entertaining than the situation was in real life.”
She continued, “As with Netflix’s ‘Tiger King, Murder, Mayhem and Madness’ and Wondery’s ‘Joe Exotic, Over My Dead Body’ and all of the other spinoffs, none of these programmes created for entertainment value really get at the main issues of big cat and cub abuse and the imminent extinction of big cats due to cub petting, like we do in Discovery+ ‘Carole Baskin’s Cage Fight’.”
Finally, Baskin added, “My fear is that in the next five years, while people are morbidly obsessed the plight of my former husband, Don Lewis, we will have reached the point of no return for the planet by failing to safeguard the world’s most iconic species.”
Showrunner Ethan Frankel promises a brand new look at the dynamics between the two characters who rose to the height of pop culture fame in March 2020 with the release of the Netflix “Tiger King” docuseries.
“We knew it would take two extraordinary actors to portray these larger-than-life people as the complex, three-dimensional individuals that they are,” Frankel says of the series’ cast. “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.”
“Joe vs Carole” will air on Showcase and STACKTV this March.
