'Joe Exotic': cast of TV drama based on 'Tiger King' announced, with Kate McKinnon and Dennis Quaid to star

Coming series is based on a Wondery podcast of the same name

A coming show from Peacock based on the docuseries 'Tiger King', currently titled 'Joe Exotic’, has announced its cast. Netflix

It may now seem more like a distant memory, but around the start of the pandemic, Netflix docuseries Tiger King was the talk of the town. The show told the incredible yet true story of Joe Exotic, his big cats and the murder-for-hire plot against his archenemy, Carole Baskin.

So it makes sense that a scripted version of the documentary is in the works and the cast for the coming series was recently announced.

John Cameron Mitchell will star as Joe Exotic, with Saturday Night Live's Kate McKinnon set to portray Baskin. Dennis Quaid has also joined on and will play Rick Kirkham, the producer of Exotic's reality show.

Previously announced cast include Brian Van Holt as former zookeeper John Reinke, Sam Keeley as John Finlay and Nat Wolff as Travis Maldonado.

Currently the working title of the project is Joe Exotic and it will be adapted from the Wondery podcast of the same name.

The series will focus on big cat enthusiast Carole Baskin, who learns that fellow animal lover Joe 'Exotic' Maldonado-Passage is breeding and using his big cats for profit.

The limited series for Peacock will also dive deeper into the intense rivalry between the two as Baskin tries to shut down Exotic's zoo while he tries to unearth her checkered past, including claims she murdered her husband.

Exotic, 58, has served two years of his 22-year prison sentence for plotting a murder-for-hire as well as committing a string of wildlife crimes.

He has made a number of bids for parole, including claiming he had prostate cancer in May.

In the same week as Exotic's latest attempt at parole, US federal authorities seized 68 big cats from an animal park in Oklahoma owned by fellow Tiger King cast members Jeffrey and Lauren Lowe.

The US Department of Justice announced that they had seized the federally protected lions, tigers, lion-tiger hybrids and a jaguar as part of a court-approved agreement to resolve a complaint against the couple over the animals’ care.