Zoe Kazan brings Steinbeck's East of Eden to Netflix as a seven-episode series

Zoe Kazan, who created and wrote the seven-episode Netflix adaptation of John Steinbeck’s novel East of Eden, said the series centers on the love story between two brothers, which she believes is essential to understanding the impact of the novel’s antagonist, Cathy Ames. > "She interrupts this love story, and if we don’t establish that love story to start between these two brothers, we don’t understand the stakes of her interrupting it," Kazan told The Hollywood Reporter.

Kazan emphasized that the show’s success depends on audiences remembering the characters, not the costumes or wigs. > "If people walk away from this talking about the costumes and the wigs, we haven’t done our job. We need people to walk away from us talking about these people, like they know them as if they are their own families," she said.

The cast, including Christopher Abbott, Mike Faist and Florence Pugh, helped Kazan deepen her understanding of the novel’s figures. > "By watching Chris and Mike interact, I understood how much these characters loved each other," Kazan noted.

Having first read the book at age 15, Kazan described it as a formative work alongside Jane Eyre and The Great Gatsby. She also cited her grandfather, director Elia Kazan, who filmed a 1955 version of the story, noting that the earlier movie omitted many of the novel’s themes, such as Cathy’s complexity and the intergenerational dynamics. > "None of that was in the 1955 film. If it had been, I never would have made this," she explained.

Kazan pursued the rights after becoming a mother, eventually receiving an invitation to pitch the project. She opted for a limited series rather than a film, acknowledging that even seven hours cannot cover the entire novel. > "The story is so big that even with seven episodes, half of the book isn’t in our series," she said.

The adaptation aims for a “novelistic” approach, allowing extended time to explore characters’ humanity. Kazan described Cathy Ames, portrayed by Florence Pugh, as deceptive yet often truthful, interpreting her childhood scenes through a lens of personal experience. Co-showrunner Jeb Stuart linked Cathy’s role to contemporary discussions of women’s agency. > "Women’s rights are always under attack. Do women have any more agency now than they did at Cathy’s time?" he said.

Actors also shared their process: Pugh said she needed to “fall in love” with Cathy, while Abbott described his character Adam Trask’s passivity as a conscious choice. The series includes other figures such as Lee (Hoon Lee) and Aron (Joe Anders), whose portrayals were informed by Kazan’s reflections on parenthood and perfectionism.

Kazan said she balanced fidelity to Steinbeck’s text with adjustments to outdated political or racial attitudes, aiming to make the story feel relevant to modern viewers. She highlighted a scene where Lee discusses code-switching as an example of a moment that feels contemporary despite its 19th-century setting.

The series premiered on Netflix on Oct. 1, joining a slate of classic literary adaptations released this year. Kazan hopes the show will encourage viewers to return to the original novel. > "If people’s takeaway from this series is ‘I want more,’ and they go to the book, I’ll feel so good," she said.