Netflix Sets 'East of Eden' for October 1, Reveals First-Look Photos of Florence Pugh as Cathy Ames

Netflix has set an October 1 premiere for its limited series East of Eden and released the first-look photos, giving audiences their first glimpse of Florence Pugh as Cathy Ames — the novel's infamous antihero at the centre of a multigenerational family saga (Deadline).

Pugh also serves as executive producer on the project, which adapts John Steinbeck's 1952 novel for the screen. The book follows the Trask family across generations, tracing rivalries, betrayals and reckonings that Steinbeck himself considered his most ambitious work. Netflix describes the series as a modern interpretation of that source material.

The adaptation carries a notable family connection. Zoe Kazan — who wrote the series and serves as co-showrunner alongside Jeb Stuart — is the granddaughter of Elia Kazan, the director who turned the novel into a 1955 film starring James Dean. That film covered only the final third of Steinbeck's book. The Netflix series, spread across seven episodes, aims to tell the fuller story.

Garth Davis directs the first four episodes, with Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre taking the helm for episodes five through seven. The series was filmed across multiple locations in New Zealand, and comes from co-studios Fifth Season and Anonymous Content.

The cast is deep. Christopher Abbott plays Adam Trask, with Mike Faist as his brother Charles. Joseph Zada takes on Cal Trask and Joe Anders plays Aron Trask — the next generation's rival siblings. Tracy Letts appears as family patriarch Cyrus Trask, Martha Plimpton as Faye, Ciarán Hinds as Samuel Hamilton, and Hoon Lee as Lee, the family's friend and confidant whose philosophical monologues are among the novel's most quoted passages.

Pugh, Kazan, and Stuart are joined by an executive producer roster that also includes Davis, de Clermont-Tonnerre, Antoine Douiahy, Zack Hayden, Steve Golin, David Levine and Jill Arthur.

For viewers, the October 1 drop means a limited series — a closed-ended story with no second season planned — lands squarely in the autumn window when streaming platforms typically push their prestige titles. Steinbeck's novel has lived on school reading lists and library shelves for over seventy years. Whether a new audience finds the Trask family through a screen instead of a paperback is the question Netflix is betting on.

The first-look photos are available now via Netflix's press materials, ahead of the series premiere on October 1.