Netflix has confirmed that its anticipated adaptation of John Steinbeck's East of Eden will premiere this autumn on .

To mark the announcement, there's also been a slew of atmospheric first-look images released of the series, which give us a glimpse into some of the drama to come.

The seven-episode limited series is adapted by Zoe Kazan, who wrote and executive produced every episode, and stars Florence Pugh as the novel's antihero, Cathy Ames. Kazan told Netflix's Tudum that she never considered anyone else for the part.

"I didn't have a backup," she said. "I didn't have another person that I thought would be just as good. She is the exact right person to play Cathy."

As one of the more complex characters in literary fiction, fans of the original Steinbeck novel will undoubtedly be intrigued to see how Pugh embodies the role of Cathy.

The first-look images give us a taste of what's to come, teasing the complex dynamics between herself and brothers Adam and Charles Trask, played by Christopher Abbott and Mike Faist, respectively.

Set in California's Salinas Valley, the series spans multiple generations as it weaves Cathy's story together with those of the Trask and Hamilton families.

Abbott, recently seen in Bring Them Down and Poor Things, plays Adam Trask, while Mike Faist, of Challengers and West Side Story fame, takes on Charles. Ciarán Hinds, familiar from Game of Thrones and The Terror, plays Samuel Hamilton.

They are joined by Hoon Lee as Lee, Tracy Letts as Cyrus Trask, Martha Plimpton as Faye, Joseph Zada as Cal Trask and Joe Anders as Aron Trask.

The project also carries a personal weight for Kazan, whose grandfather, Oscar-winning director Elia Kazan, made the celebrated 1955 film adaptation starring James Dean. Rather than revisit that film's tight focus, she has chosen to dramatise the sweeping scope of Steinbeck's 1952 novel.

"The movie isn't a super faithful adaptation of the small part of the book that it is adapting," Kazan said. "What I felt was the whole epic story is an opportunity to explore, to fall in love with all these characters."

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Steinbeck famously described his magnum opus as "two books, the story of my country and the story of me", and Kazan says that line became her guiding principle. "I really took that as my credo," she told Tudum. "It needs to be epic and intimate. It needs to be as personal for me as it was for him, even though he's literally writing about his family".

Kazan told Tudum of watching Pugh at work across the shoot. "Her awareness of the camera is unparalleled," she said. "I don't use this word lightly: I think she's a genius. I watched her on set for five months. I have no more insight now as to how she works than I did before."

That enigmatic quality suits Cathy, a character who has been studied and spoken about for generations of book fans. Her actions will divide, but her motivations, at least in Steinbeck's work, are never explicitly revealed.

In the 1955 adaptation of the novel, Jo Van Fleet took on the layered role, going on to win an Academy Award for it while Jane Seymour also embodied Cathy in the 1982 series version, winning a Golden Globe for best actress.

Rather than reinvent the character, Kazan has spoken about simply wanting to deepen our understanding of Cathy.

"I wanted to make sure that she was also a person and not just an archetype," she explained. "I think that really required me to do some unfolding rather than inventing. Basically, everything that's in the series has at least a root in the book."

East of Eden is available to watch on Netflix from Thursday 1 October 2026. You can sign up to Netflix from £5.99 a month. Netflix is also available on Sky TV and Virgin Media.

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