Netflix would really like you to know that its upcoming Greek god series, Kaos, is not like other Greek gods. As Tudum says, “The upcoming drama takes everything we know about Greek mythology and turns it on its head with a contemporary twist — all with Goldblum’s Zeus, ruthless king of the gods, at the center.”
It’s just a bit unclear what has been turned on its head here. Gods being petty and cruel? Check. Gods doing whatever they want and being defied by humanity? Check. What is this trailer not showing us?
Whatever secrets Kaos is hiding, it does look like fun, in a gods-behaving-badly sort of way. Jeff Goldblum leads the pack as Zeus, who gets a bee in his bonnet about those dirty ungrateful humans; Janet McTeer is his wife, Hera; Riddy (Aurora Perrineau), Ari (Leila Farzad), and Caneus (Misia Butler) are three humans who “are totally unaware of their cosmic significance or the part they must play in saving the world.”
And that’s just for starters; we’ve also got Billie Piper as a miserable-looking Cassandra; Debi Mazar as Medusa; and Suzy Eddie Izzard as “Lachy,” which is a terrible nickname for Lachesis (the middle of the three Fates). Orpheus (Killian Scott) is here, of course, once again reinterpreted as a rock star. Three big names are excellently cast: David Thewlis as Hades, Cliff Curtis as Poseidon, and Nabhaan Rizwan as Dionysus. Stephen Dillane plays Prometheus, who’s got a real bone to pick with these gods.
Kaos comes from The End of the F***ing World creator Charlie Covell, who told Tudum that they were a Greek-myth-obsessed child who watched Clash of the Titans “daily.” The series arrives on Netflix on August 29th.