Cool cats and kittens defender Carole Baskin plots the end of Joe Exotic‘s reign in the first teaser for Peacock’s Joe vs. Carole show — and Kate McKinnon purrfects the quirks, cringe, and nonsense of the Tiger King villainess.
On Friday, Peacock released the first teaser of Joe vs. Carole — inspired by the 2020 podcast Joe Exotic: Tiger King — which is set to release on March 3. The 35-second clip focuses on McKinnon as she devises a plan to take down Exotic (John Cameron Mitchell) and his money-making enterprise. “This is who we’ve been after,” McKinnon says at the start of the clip. “Wherever you are, we’re coming for ya.”
Then fans get a first look at Mitchell — who previously compared playing Exotic to portraying a Shakespeare character — as the flamboyant, wildcat-raising homosexual Southerner ready to “mess with” Baskin. “I know if we sit down and talk, we can come to an understanding,” he says, before McKinnon’s Baskin breaks into a dolphin-like laugh. By the end, Baskin and her husband (Kyle MacLachlan) — Howard, not the one people think she killed — declare “it’s war” between her and Exotic. No compromises here.
About his role, Mitchell previously teased how the show will humanize the Tiger King. “You see them battered as children. You see the homophobia,” he told People last November. “It honors the 15-year marriage he had, that this docuseries didn’t mention, with his husband dying of AIDS, and the homophobia forming him and making him into this harsh figure who is sympathetic in one way but megalomaniacal in another.”
The Australia-filmed show is directed by Justin Tipping and Natalie Bailey. Creator Etan Frankel based the series on the second season of Wondery podcast Over My Dead Body.