Netflix has dropped the full trailer for its new adaptation of East of Eden, and this version of John Steinbeck’s classic novel puts Florence Pugh right at the center of the story’s twisted family history.
Pugh takes on Cathy Ames, one of Steinbeck’s most memorable and unsettling characters, with Christopher Abbott playing Adam Trask and Mike Faist starring as his brother Charles.
Rather than simply revisiting familiar territory, the series shifts more of the attention toward Cathy and the choices that connect her to multiple generations of the Trask family. Her relationships with Adam and Charles play a major role as the characters experience the darker side of the California dream.
At one point in the trailer, Cathy is asked why she wants to disappear. Her answer gets straight to what this adaptation appears interested in exploring: “Because, the world is so full of evil.”
Good and evil, and the decisions people make between the two, sit at the heart of this interpretation of Steinbeck’s 1952 novel. The series is described as:
“A portrait of one family, but also of a society that is rapidly changing, in which men & women must navigate difficult decisions, and come face-to-face with the reality that, ultimately, you are what you choose.”
That makes Cathy an especially interesting character to build this version around. Pugh plays someone whose actions ripple through the lives of the Trask family while the series examines how family history continues shaping the people who come after.
The cast also includes Hoon Lee, Tracy Letts, Ciarán Hinds, Martha Plimpton, Joseph Zada, and Joe Anders.
Actress and writer Zoe Kazan, whose previous writing credits include Ruby Sparks and Wildlife, created the East of Eden limited series and serves as co-showrunner alongside Jeb Stuart. Garth Davis and Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre directed episodes.
Steinbeck’s novel previously inspired the acclaimed 1955 East of Eden film starring James Dean, but Netflix’s seven-episode format gives Kazan considerably more room to dig into the Trask family across generations and approach the material from Cathy’s perspective.
Based on this trailer, that perspective could be what makes the new adaptation worth checking out. This looks gorgeous, sinister, and emotionally nasty in all the right ways, and putting Pugh’s Cathy at the center could make for a fascinating new take on Steinbeck’s story.
East of Eden premieres October 1st, 2026, exclusively on Netflix.
