Steven Yeun's Next Netflix Show Is About a Father and a Daughter Who Is "Anything But" Typical
Steven Yeun is returning to Netflix, and the project he's chosen is the one everybody in the industry has been talking about for a year.
Netflix announced Thursday that Yeun will star in and executive produce Pagans, a supernatural drama from Joshua Zetumer, creator of FX's Say Nothing. Yeun plays Gus, a man left as the sole caretaker of his two children after his wife dies. His son is a normal kid. His daughter, Alice, is not.
What we know about the story
The official description promises something equal parts emotional, horrifying and funny — a show about the darkest thoughts people have about their own families. The strained father-daughter dynamic evolves into something considerably worse than strained.
That's all Netflix is saying. Which, for a project this hyped, is probably the correct amount.
The bidding war behind it
Pagans began as a spec script from Zetumer, and by all accounts it was the hottest script in town last year — reportedly fifteen to eighteen studios, platforms and producers chasing it. Netflix won with a straight-to-series order in September. Drew Goddard, who wrote The Cabin in the Woods and knows something about weaponizing genre expectations, came aboard as executive producer in December alongside Sarah Esberg via Goddard Textiles. Jonathan van Tulleken and Erica Kay also executive produce. Yeun produces with Christina Oh for Celadon Pictures.
A script that expensive, a lead that good, and a logline that refuses to say what's actually wrong with the daughter. Fine. I'm in.
Yeun's Netflix era continues
This is his first television role since Beef, which won him an Emmy, a Golden Globe and a SAG Award opposite Ali Wong. He also starred in the streamer's The Rip earlier this year, and next appears opposite Ben Affleck in Affleck's Netflix film Animals.
No production start or release window has been announced.