Thanks to the massive popularity of Netflix’s Tiger King docuseries, Joe Exotic is one of the most memed people on social media this week, for better or for worse. He’s enough of a character that not only has Netflix made a hit docuseries on him, but Saturday Night Live mainstay Kate McKinnon is hoping to adapt the topic for a fictional mini-series. If one person adjacent to the group of zookeepers the series is about gets his way, Margot Robbie will also be starring in the series.
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Podcaster Robert Moor — the creator and host of Joe Exotic, the podcast McKinnon’s series will be based on — made the casting suggestion on a recent episode of Andy Cohen’s Radio Andy show on SiriusXM. “We’ve been talking a lot of names … [“Jojo Rabbit” star] Sam Rockwell was one of the names that came up a lot to play Joe Exotic,” Moor said at first.
But then things took a turn and Moor seemingly made a serious suggestion about gender-bender the Joe Exotic role and casting the Birds of Prey in it. Moor continued, “My preferred casting — and this is off the wall — would be Margot Robbie. I think Margot Robbie should play Joe in a like a gender switch [thing].”
Exotic, real name Joseph Maldonado-Passage, used to be the proprietor of the Wynnewood Exotic Animal Park and now, he’s serving 22 years in federal prison after being convicted on a host of charges including murder-for-hire and a handful of charges in violation of the Endangered Species Act.
McKinnon’s Joe Exotic limited series is currently being developed at universal Content Productions, though no network or streaming platform has been attached.
Netflix’s synopsis for Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem, and Madness is below.
“Among the eccentrics and cult personalities in the stranger-than-fiction world of big cat owners, few stand out more than Joe Exotic, a mulleted, gun-toting polygamist and country-western singer who presides over an Oklahoma roadside zoo. Charismatic but misguided, Joe and an unbelievable cast of characters including drug kingpins, conmen, and cult leaders all share a passion for big cats, and the status and attention their dangerous menageries garner. But things take a dark turn when Carole Baskin, an animal activist and owner of a big cat sanctuary, threatens to put them out of business, stoking a rivalry that eventually leads to Joe’s arrest for a murder-for-hire plot, and reveals a twisted tale where the only thing more dangerous than a big cat is its owner.”
Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem, and Madness is now streaming on Netflix. McKinnon’s Tiger King fictional series has yet to set a release date.
