Netflix's upcoming drama “Kaos” is an ancient tale with a distinctly modern twist. Jeff Goldblum plays Zeus, king of the gods, but in this telling, he's an aging, sexually uncontrollable, increasingly insane man—Logan Roy comes to mind—trying to maintain his grip on his family and empire.
“Why go back to mythology? It’s timeless; the issues are eternal,” says creator Charlie Covell, reflecting on the source material for the series, which premieres August 29. Indeed, the story has been a long time in the making for Covell, who finds the themes of “power, abuse of power, love, death, family, dysfunctional family” to be ever-relevant—and eternally fascinating—for audiences.
Like Succession, “Khaos” is about two powerful brothers fighting, but they’re not just humans fighting for control of a media company. Instead, Covel’s darkly satirical epic is a fantasy/modern hybrid that ranges from Zeus’s glittering palace on Mount Olympus to the underworld, a Kafkaesque nightmare of humorless bureaucrats. In between is contemporary Crete, awash with cars, falafel trucks, and everyday citizens in modern attire. Even the gods favor sportswear: Zeus wears a tracksuit embroidered with lightning bolts; Poseidon (Cliff Curtis) cruises the Mediterranean in swimming trunks on his yacht, having a torrid affair with Zeus’s wife, Hera (Janet McTeer).
Aurora Perrineau in “Kaos” (Courtesy of Netflix)
Zeus doesn’t notice; he’s busy thwarting an ancient prophecy of his downfall, while his party-loving son Dionysus (Nabhan Rizwan) searches for a greater purpose—and demands that Zeus take him seriously. In a short time, we’re introduced to a roster of Greek mythology’s best characters, including Medusa (Debi Mazar), Orpheus and Eurydice (Killian Scott and Aurora Perrineau) and Ariadne (Leila Farzad), whose paths will collide in an epic climax.
It’s an ambitious project for a fairly new writer (Covell also wrote the “Apocalypse” series). In fact, Covell originally planned to “start on a smaller scale, with an ‘immersive piece of theatre.’” An early scene they tried was of Clytemnestra making her way through the underworld, which Covell depicted as a “dusty bureaucratic hole.” The idea was to take “this great classical character and put him in a trashy place,” says Covell (who uses the first-person pronoun “they”). “Trying to combine grandeur with a worldly, absurdist, British English humour.” That tone carries over to the series, and makes Goldblum—a master of grotesque, swashbuckling comedy—perfectly suited to playing a god on the verge of collapse.
For Goldblum—who took on the role in 2022 after Hugh Grant dropped out for scheduling reasons—the appeal was the timelessness of the stories. “Greek mythology has always dealt with the full range of human experience, the continuity from the beginning to now,” he says. Furthermore, “Covel built an amazing, wonderful world—and a very moving and funny one. It hit me right in the stomach.”
Although the world stage is full of megalomaniacs, Goldblum says he didn’t draw on any real-life examples to portray his character. “I mostly used my imagination — and then I looked to my heart and soul,” he says wryly. (Covel also insists that Donald Trump wasn’t the inspiration for Zeus, since he started working on the project before 2015.)
Kovel expects mythology purists to have mixed feelings about “Khaos,” since they haven’t been shy about changing the basic elements of the classic versions. But their goal has always been to make the show, produced by independent production company Sister, accessible to everyone. “The classics can seem a bit elitist,” Kovel says. “People like to drop a reference to the classics to make people feel stupid, and I never wanted the show to be that.”
While the eight-part first season could stand on its own as a narrative arc, Covell says they know what they’ll do for a second season if Netflix decides to release it. Goldblum is also eager to see the series renewed. “I’m really curious,” he says. “I said to Charlie, ‘What’s going to happen?’ And Charlie has a lot of things on his mind. So it’s fertile ground.”
