From Jurassic Park to Super Bowl memes, Jeff Goldblum is the pinnacle of cool. But what if he were at the pinnacle of everything? That’s the question KAOS asks, as the new series — from The End of the F***ing World creator Charlie Covell — puts Goldblum atop Mount Olympus. 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. 

“My character is complicated and charismatic, not to mention cruel,” the actor tells Tudum. “Charlie Covell’s writing leapt off the page and struck my gizzard like a lightning bolt as something spectacularly smart, surprising, unexpected, profound, and deeply moving.”

As you can see in the new trailer above, Goldblum’s Zeus is harsh yet stylish, an all-powerful being who’s determined to hold onto his status by any means possible and believes humans don’t matter. The trailer also introduces you to some of those seemingly insignificant humans who populate this world and offers a first look at the characters played by Debi Mazar, Billie Piper, and Suzy Eddie Izzard.

Janet McTeer, who plays Zeus’ wife, Hera, relished watching Goldblum transform into the fearsome king of the gods. “The more you watch the series, hopefully the more scared you will get,” she tells Tudum with a devilish smile. “Because you realize his power and what he can do, and it’s just so fantastic.” 

Before you assume the odyssey ahead is too dire, Covell has something to say. “It’s a funny show,” they tell Tudum. “I want viewers to feel like, ‘I’m going to have a good time!’ ”    

So get your head out of the clouds and keep reading to learn everything you want to know about the darkly comic show, including details about the plot and cast, before it comes to Netflix on Aug. 29.

Watch the KAOS Teaser

What is KAOS about? 

In the intriguing world of KAOS, it’s the pantheon of gods versus humans with Zeus at the top of the mythological food chain as the cruel and stylish ruler of the gods, a position he has enjoyed for some time. Then one day he discovers the unthinkable: a wrinkle on his forehead. Paranoia builds, leading the supreme deity down a dangerous and unstable path. All-powerful Zeus is convinced his fall is nigh and sees omens of doom everywhere. This is a god with “trust issues,” Goldblum explains. “It’s a magic carpet to disaster.”

The wrinkle “is this triggering thing of, ‘Uh-oh, nature is a chicken that’s coming home to roost,’ ” he says. “The longer that [thought process] goes on, the worse it is. It’s like hungry dogs — when they’re left unfed in the cellar, they just start barking louder and louder. And when they’re finally let out, oh boy.” 

And he’s right to be worried, because Zeus’ onetime friend and now prisoner Prometheus (Stephen Dillane) is orchestrating a plot to bring him down. It involves three disparate humans — Riddy (Aurora Perrineau), Ari (Leila Farzad), and Caneus (Misia Butler) — who are totally unaware of their cosmic significance or the part they must play in saving the world.

As Zeus battles his greatest fears, the rest of his family is scheming and failing in their own ways. There’s Zeus’ cunning wife, Hera (Ozark’s Janet McTeer); his rebellious son, Dionysus (Industry’s Nabhaan Rizwan); and his complicated brothers, Hades (Landscapers’ David Thewlis) and Poseidon (Avatar: The Way of Water’s Cliff Curtis). “There are secrets that people are keeping, like in any family,” Goldblum says. “But after over 2,000 years together, you can imagine!”

“It’s so brutal. It’s about the 1%, which is what I think the gods are,” McTeer says. “They will do anything for their own pleasure. They don’t care what it costs people or the Earth.” Well, they just might once KAOS reigns. 

When does KAOS come out?

KAOS will be streaming on Netflix on Aug. 29.

Watch the First Look at Jeff Goldblum as Zeus in KAOS

Who is in the KAOS cast? 

Goldblum, McTeer, and Rizwan portray some of the gods of KAOS. Zeus and his “core family” are the key to the series, whose inspiration came from a simple question: “What if the king of the gods had a midlife crisis?” Covell says. 

Goldblum loved exploring Zeus’ “dysfunctional family,” as Covell calls it — and is particularly moved by uncovering his character’s relationship with Hera alongside co-star McTeer. “I’m so in love with Janet’s talent, humanity, and soulfulness,” he says. “We had scenes that required something of me. She was a great partner and opened me up and brought things out of me that otherwise wouldn’t have occurred.”

The individual flitting between god and human, Olympus and Earth, most often is Rizwan’s Dionysus, demigod and ruler of pleasure, madness, and wild frenzy. “What isn’t there to love? He dresses great. He smells great … like sharp citrus notes,” Rizwan says. “He just likes having a good time, and he treats everyone equally, be they deity or mortal. It’s all the same for him. If they’re down to party, then Dionysus is game.”  

Then there are the humans. “The particular characters that popped into my head at first were really Orpheus [and Riddy],” Covell says. “Orpheus [played by Killian Scott]  is lovable and flawed. I don't think his eyes are open to what Riddy's actually feeling.

“The love that everyone wants is a guy who will go to hell for you,” Perrineau says. But, like every other myth, KAOS “flips” this familiar story on its head. Not only are there unexpected surprises to learn about their relationship, but Orpheus isn’t just just a renowned lyre player. He’s reimagined as “the world’s most famous rock star, pop star kind of guy,” Scott says. “He really handles that level of fame incredibly well. Because when you see how he engages within the world, it’s like Harry Styles.”  

Rakie Ayola appears as Persephand Stanley Townsend also appear as Persephone and Minos. As revealed in the new trailer, Mazar plays Medusa, and Piper and Izzard cameo as Cassandra and Lachy, aka Lachesis (who’s one of three Fates), respectively.

Justin Downing/Netflix

Do I have to know about Greek mythology to watch KAOS? 

The fruit of the gods is for everyone — even if you’re not familiar with the tales that cemented them as deities. After all, McTeer says, at its core KAOS is “a deeply normal family drama.” 

Her showrunner agrees. “I never want people to feel they can’t watch the show unless they’ve done their homework, because that’s just terrible and very kind of exclusionary,” Covell says. “But I would love for people who have read [the Greek myths] to be like, ‘Easter egg, Easter egg, Easter egg.’ ” 

What kinds of Easter eggs can longtime fans of mythology expect? There are a few nods Covell says to look out for, from some very special produce to a certain truck barreling through Episode 1. Perrineau’s favorite reference is also in the premiere — a grocery store cutout that shouldn’t be spoiled just yet. “For some reason, I thought it was funnier than everyone else [did],” she says, laughing. “I realized every single thing put in the script has been crafted perfectly to make sense to people that know Greek myths.” 

Perrineau’s on-screen husband is still impressed by the world Covell created. “Charlie came up with all these incredible details that were going over the heads of us mere mortals,” Scott tells Tudum. “Charlie’s achievement with this is a celebration, really. They’ve distilled a huge wealth of material while reimagining it and giving it a lot of modern touches.” 

Why is it called KAOS? 

The show is set in “our world, but it’s kind of kinked, and it’s different,” they explain. So KAOS deserved an equally tilted take on a word we’re all familiar with. 

Chaos is also the primordial soup found at the beginning of Ovid’s Metamorphoses. “The world is kind of born from chaos,” Covell says. “We think the word chaos is bad. But actually, chaos is good, possibly.”   

Who made KAOS? 

KAOS isn’t creator and writer Charlie Covell’s first brush with the brutal and the irreverent. The executive producer also created the genre-bending YA series The End of the F***ing World, which won two BAFTAs. 

The rest of the KAOS team includes directors Georgi Banks-Davies, who also acts as Executive Producer,  and Runyararo Mapfumo; executive producers Jane Featherstone, Chris Fry, Katie Carpenter, Nina Lederman, Tanya Seghatchian, and John Woodward; producer Harry Munday; and Georgia Christou, who wrote Episode 6. 

What inspired KAOS? 

Covell was “obsessed” with Greek mythology from an early age. As a child, they watched 1981’s Clash of the Titans “daily” and kept digging into the subject from there. One of their first plays placed classical figure Clytemnestra in the Underworld. “Then, after End of the F***ing World, the thing I’d always wanted to do was a modern retelling of the myths,” they say. So Covell blended the traditional with the pop cultural flavors they love, from the Percy Jackson series and Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo + Juliet to the stylings of Chuck Forsman, whose graphic novel inspired The End of the F***ing World.   

“It was always a mash-up of stuff, but the stories were always about timeless things like love, and power, and death, and dysfunctional families,” Covell says. “And it was always kind of funny in my head.” 

Can I watch any KAOS footage? 

Praise be to the gods — you sure can. The latest KAOS footage offers a peek at Goldblum as power-hungry Zeus, whose passions include dining al fresco and the destructive capabilities of fire. Meanwhile, the humans below suffer through the strife of mortality. Could it finally be time to defy the deities? 

You’ll find out when KAOS premieres on Netflix on Aug. 29. Until then, keep coming back to Tudum to keep your KAOS news in order. 

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