The directors of Tiger King admit that the Coronavirus did contribute to the success of the Netflix series. As the subtitle suggests, Tiger King treats fans with a story of murder, mayhem, and madness and centers around a former zoo owner named Joe Exotic. The series focused on the feud between Joe and Carole Baskin, a big-cat animal activist who received multiple death threats from Joe while he ran Greater Wynnewood Exotic Animal Park.
Upon the series’ release on Netflix in May, Tiger King became incredibly popular with fans of true crime docu-series and casual viewers alike because of how bizarre the story was. Soon after its release, the internet was flooded with Tiger King memes as well as developments on the disappearance of Carole Baskin’s husband, Don Lewis. Many people had theorized that Tiger King was successful partly due to people being in lockdown near the end of March, and now the directors have confirmed that’s the case.
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Tiger King directors Eric Goode and Rebecca Chaiklin were recently interviewed by The Wrap, where they talked about Tiger King’s massive success and the effect it’s had on people during the pandemic. The directors spoke about how they never expected the series to become as popular as it has, with Goode commenting, “We did recognize, and Netflix recognized, that this is a unique story on a lot of levels. But I think in this time of the coronavirus, it caught fire in a way that it would never have, because people have so much time on their hands to create memes and dress up as the characters. The phenomenon that it became had a lot to do with the timing.” and Chaiklin adding “And I think when reality is so bleak and unsettling and scary, it’s nice to be able to escape into this very colorful, kooky world and lose yourself in it.“
With the series’ popularity, there are multiple Tiger King projects in development. Two of these are TV adaptations starring Rob Lowe and Nicholas Cage as Exotic, and a different series is being developed with SNL‘s Kate McKinnon playing Baskin. Tiger King‘s crazy story is also being turned into a feature-length film, with Tara Reid possibly starring as Baskin. Fans received a Tiger King after-show at the beginning of April, but a sequel episode is now in development focusing on Siegfried and Roy.
Since people were quarantined at home starting in March, the success of Tiger King isn’t a huge surprise. Netflix’s true-crime documentaries usually do well, with the likes of Making a Murderer and, more recently, Jeffrey Epstein: Filthy Rich getting a lot of views. Tiger King took that success to a whole other level by getting 34.3 million views in its first ten days, which topped some of their other original content, such as season 2 of Stranger Things. Although many stay-at-home orders being lifted and businesses starting to re-open, don’t expect Tiger King‘s popularity to diminish for the next few years.
Source: The Wrap
