Is Evil a Choice?: Florence Pugh Plays Unsettling Antihero in Netflix’s East of Eden
Film & TV14 September 2026
AuthorAlexandra Hill
PhotosGeoffrey Short/Netflix
Florence Pugh takes on Steinbeck’s infamous antihero Cathy Ames in Netflix’s East of Eden, a morally ambiguous epic about good, evil and the weight of our choices
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To a monster, the norm must seem monstrous,” muses an eerily brooding Florence Pugh in Netflix’s latest period miniseries East of Eden (2026), which is set to arrive on the platform on 1st October after a four-year wait.
Before reappearing as Princess Irulan in Dune: Part Three (2026) and Yelena Belova in Avengers: Doomsday (2026) this winter, Pugh will transform into protagonist (or rather, antagonist) Cathy Ames in a shadowy adaptation of John Steinbeck’s 1952 tragic novel East of Eden, which reflects on the eternal struggle between good and evil with biblical undertones.
Executive-produced by Pugh herself alongside writer and showrunner Zoe Kazan, the Netflix adaptation traces the passage of time from the American Civil War right through to World War One, essentially retelling the biblical story of Cain and Abel, the sons of Adam and Eve.
From what the trailer has so far teased, East of Eden follows multiple generations of the Trask and Hamilton families in California’s Salinas Valley in the early 20th century. Adam Trask (Christopher Abbott) marries Pugh’s Cathy, but soon finds his wife’s apparent moral absence means the relationship will be far from easy.
The couple have two sons who mirror the morally opposite Cain and Abel: Cal (Joseph Zada) fears that he has inherited the cruel, monstrous nature of his absent mother, while Aron (Joe Anders) is conversely pious, trusting, and good-hearted.
Meanwhile, the Trasks’ story crosses the path of Steinbeck’s own family, fictionalized on screen as the Hamiltons, headed by gentle patriarch Samuel (Ciarán Hinds) who stands as a foil for the dishonest Trask patriarch Cyrus (Tracy Letts).
A story of foils and juxtapositions; of inherent good and evil. East of Eden is both a portrait of one morally ambiguous family, but also of a society that is relentlessly changing, in which men and women must bear the weight of their choices.
“Our future isn’t determined by our past,” the Trasks’ loyal manservant Lee (Hoon Lee) reflects in the trailer, adding, “Whatever you do, it will be you who does it.”
Adapting Steinbeck’s multigenerational epic, therefore, is no mean feat, but Kazan cites having Steinbeck’s longhand journal to hand—in which he documented both pages of the book and letters to his editor—deepened her understanding of the author’s creative process and helped her remain loyal to the original text.
Interestingly, Kazan has her own familial connection to East of Eden, since it was her grandfather, Elia Kazan, who directed the 1955 film adaptation of the book led by James Dean as Cal Trask.
Besides, this is not Kazan’s first foray into period adaptation, having written the screenplay for the American drama film Wildlife (2018) which was co-adapted by her partner Paul Dano from the 1990 novel by Richard Ford. Like East of Eden, Wildlife captures the dark, moody atmosphere associated with themes of familial dissolution, loss of innocence, and the American transient experience in 1960s Montana.
So, as the days shorten and autumnal coldness creeps in, Pugh’s unsettlingly placid performance paired with windswept landscapes and tragic moral conflict can only mean that East of Eden could be nothing short of spectacular. We’re keeping our fingers crossed.
