The adaptation, developed for Netflix by writer and executive producer Zoe Kazan, revisits Steinbeck's 1952 novel through a contemporary lens while keeping its core themes of love, jealousy, and the struggle between good and evil firmly intact.

Netflix has confirmed that all seven episodes of East of Eden will debut globally in fall 2026, available exclusively to subscribers on the platform. The show is being produced as a limited series, meaning the Trask and Hamilton family saga is planned as a single, self-contained season.

Set in California's Salinas Valley and spanning decades between the American Civil War and the First World War, the series follows successive generations of the Trask and Hamilton families. Central to the drama is farmer Adam Trask, his marriage to the manipulative Cathy Ames, and the impact of her actions on their twin sons, whose clashing personalities dramatise a father's preference, rivalry between brothers, and the burden of family inheritance. Like the novel, the show leans heavily into the moral tension between good and evil, with Cathy emerging as the story's chilling antihero.

Florence Pugh leads the cast as Cathy Ames, with Christopher Abbott and Mike Faist playing Adam Trask and his brother Charles, alongside Ciarán Hinds as Samuel Hamilton and Hoon Lee as Lee. Behind the camera, Kazan adapts the novel her grandfather Elia Kazan famously brought to the screen in 1955, with Garth Davis directing the first four episodes and Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre the remaining three. The series is produced by Anonymous Content and Fifth Season, with Kazan, Jeb Stuart, and others serving as executive producers.

With a prestige cast, strong literary foundations, and Netflix positioning it as a major fall release, East of Eden Netflix series arrives with considerable expectations. Early footage suggests a visually rich, character-driven drama that aims to make Steinbeck's questions about choice, guilt, and redemption resonate with a new generation of viewers.