Florence Pugh leads the seven-episode adaptation of John Steinbeck’s classic, written by Zoe Kazan — the granddaughter of the director behind the 1955 film.
Netflix has unveiled the first full-length trailer for East of Eden, giving audiences their first extended look at its ambitious new adaptation of John Steinbeck’s celebrated novel.
Released on September 2, 2026, the trailer sets a dark and intense tone for the seven-episode limited series, which will premiere globally on October 1 with all episodes arriving at once.
At the center of the new adaptation is Florence Pugh, who takes on the role of Cathy Ames, one of Steinbeck’s most complicated and unsettling characters. The story follows the intertwined lives of the Trask and Hamilton families in California’s Salinas Valley, exploring themes of family, desire, jealousy, morality and betrayal.
The trailer introduces Cathy as a deeply mysterious figure whose arrival changes the relationship between brothers Adam Trask, played by Christopher Abbott, and Charles Trask, played by Mike Faist. Her presence sets off a chain of conflicts that stretches across generations.
But the series carries another layer of significance beyond its cast and source material. East of Eden is written and showrun by Zoe Kazan, creating a remarkable connection to the story’s cinematic history.
Kazan is the granddaughter of legendary filmmaker Elia Kazan, who directed the 1955 film adaptation of East of Eden, famously starring James Dean. That film helped establish Dean as one of Hollywood’s defining young stars.
The new series also has the advantage of a seven-episode format, allowing it to explore much more of Steinbeck’s original novel than the 1955 film could. Rather than revisiting only one portion of the story, the Netflix adaptation aims to bring the broader family saga to the screen.
With Pugh leading a high-profile cast and Zoe Kazan continuing a family connection to one of the novel’s most important screen adaptations, Netflix’s East of Eden arrives with both literary weight and a unique piece of Hollywood history behind it.
