Pesky humans! So prone to ignoring the whims and the wills of the powerful gods and goddesses of Olympus. In Kaos, the upcoming Netflix series from The End of the F***ing World creator Charlie Covell, Zeus (Jeff Goldblum) has had it with us. “I’m gonna wipe these fuckers right off the face of the fucking Earth,” he snarls, after hearing a woman say she defies the gods.
Nice guy, that Zeus! Famously not a nice guy, really, but here he’s even less nice. Which tracks. Here’s Netflix’s detailed synopsis of the series:
Zeus has long enjoyed his status as King of The Gods. That is until he wakes up one morning and discovers a wrinkle on his forehead. Neurosis sets in, setting him off on a dangerous, paranoid path. Zeus becomes convinced his fall is coming – and starts to see signs of it everywhere.
Zeus’ once reliable brother, Hades, God of the Underworld, is secretly losing his grip on his dark dominion. There is a backlog of dead waiting to be processed and they are growing restless. Hera (Janet McTeer), Queen of the Gods, exercises dominion on Earth—and over Zeus—in her own unique way. But her power and freedom become threatened by Zeus’ growing paranoia, and she is forced to act, while Zeus’ rebellious son, Dionysus (Nabhaan Rizwan), is out of control and on course for a cosmic collision with his father.
On Earth people are aching for change, however Poseidon (Cliff Curtis), God of Sea, Storms and Earthquakes (and Horses) is more concerned with the size of his super-yacht and where the next party is at. The wellbeing of mere mortals is of little interest to him. Unfortunately for the Gods some of those mortals are beginning to realise this…
These mortals—Riddy (Aurora Perrineau), Orpheus (Killian Scott), Caneus (Misia Butler) and Ari (Leila Farzad)—come from different walks of life and are all cosmically connected in the battle against Zeus. Each one has a very different role to play, any one of them may be destined to bring down the Gods.
No previous Greek mythology knowledge is required to enjoy Kaos, according to Covell, who told Tudum, “I never want people to feel they can’t watch the show unless they’ve done their homework, because that’s just terrible and very kind of exclusionary. But I would love for people who have read [the Greek myths] to be like, ‘Easter egg, Easter egg, Easter egg.’ ”
You can find said Easter eggs on Netflix when Kaos premieres August 29th.