Sometimes nothing is better than beating a dead horse. The Joe Vs. Carole teaser was released by Peacock and hints at a battle between Carole Baskin (Kate McKinnon) and Joe Exotic (John Cameron Mitchell).
It’s hard to believe but it has been almost two years since Tiger King took the internet by storm. The series followed two kooky southern big cat owners, Joe Exotic and Baskin, who eventually went to some sort of mini-war that ended with Joe going to prison where he still currently is. The Netflix series documented these events and, at the height of the pandemic, everyone became intrigued with where this story was going.
Joe Vs. Carole is a scripted version of this story and is based on the “Joe Exotic” Wondery podcast. The teaser features Mckinnon transformed as Carole Baskin going toe-to-toe with Mitchell’s Joe Exotic. In addition to Mitchell as Joe and McKinnon as Baskin, the Peacock series will also feature Kyle MacLachlan as Howard Baskin, Dean Winters as Jeff Lowe, William Fichtner as Rick Kirkham, and Nat Wolff as Travis Moldonado.
This series does seem a bit late but there is still some Tiger King content being released as Netflix recently released Tiger King 2. Baskin is currently suing Netflix as the producers used footage of her and her cats for Tiger King 2 without her permission. Amazon did have a project lined up with Nicolas Cage set to portray Mr. Exotic, but that project was scrapped.
In a statement provided by Peacock, executive producer Etan Frankel described his excitement towards casting these two leads to portray these larger-than-life personas.
“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.”
The series itself appears to be comedic but is framed in the teaser as a gritty crime drama. Joe Vs. Carole will start streaming on Peacock on March 3.
