Jeff Goldblum heads up the cast of Kaos as a larger-than-life version of Grecian god Zeus, but who else stars in the darkly comic Netflix series?
The eight-parter opens with the flamboyant king of the gods going on a paranoid spree after discovering a wrinkle on his forehead and becoming convinced it means the end of his reign.
A visual spectacular packed with pathos, comedy, and a host of famous faces (including cameos from Billie Piper, Suzy Eddie Izzard and Rosie Cavaliero, to name a few) and a terrific toe-tapping soundtrack, this is worlds apart from the usual swords and sandal retellings of Grecian myths.
Here's our Kaos cast guide to who's who...
Zeus (Jeff Goldblum)
Casually cruel, deeply insecure and all-powerful, the king of the gods goes on the warpath when he develops a wrinkle. But just because he’s a paranoid megalomaniac, it doesn’t mean an ancient prophecy isn’t out to get him…
Hera (Janet McTeer)
Married to Zeus, the queen of the gods is keeping a dangerous secret from her hubby. When her lavish, idyllic existence comes under threat, she deviously decides to take matters into her own hands…
Prometheus (Stephen Dillane)
Zeus’s oldest friend and rival. He's kept chained to a cliff by his buddy where he has his liver pecked out daily, which has given him plenty of time to plot revenge…
Dionysus (Nabhaan Rizwan)
Zeus's favourite son is a half-mortal yet enjoys full-god status. When being the keeper of Pleasure, Madness and Wild Frenzy gets old, however, his desire for more power threatens to rupture the world order.
Riddy (Aurora Perrineau)
A human, muse to her rockstar husband Orpheus and desperately unhappy, she has no clue about her cosmic significance. Desperate to make a change, a fateful encounter in a supermarket grants her wish for a major life overhaul.
Orpheus (Killian Scott)
The only thing bigger than the mortal musician's ego is his love for his wife. When his life as he knows it is ripped away, he faces two choices — accept his fate or attempt to defy death itself…
Hades (David Thewlis)
The god of Death and Zeus's middle brother, he's a stickler for bureaucracy when it comes to running the Underworld. He takes the ancient prophecy seriously and is put in grave danger attempting to help his ungrateful sibling.
Persephone (Rakie Ayola)
Persephone is queen of the Underworld, married to Hades, and spends much of her life dispelling irritating rumours that she was captured by him and made a child bride. Quite wrong: she adores the man, and married him willingly. She cannot, however, stand the rest of the family, and when her husband is attacked by Zeus, she takes matters into her own hands.
Poseidon (Cliff Curtis)
Poseidon is Zeus’s youngest brother. He lives on a yacht near Krete, and is pretty relaxed about his eternal life. He’s more a pleasure-seeker than a harbinger of doom: Speedos not spears. But Zeus’s paranoia changes that — it starts to threaten the fabric of the family, and puts both Poseidon and someone he loves in danger.
Caeneus (Misia Butler)
Caeneus has been dead for ten years. His life in the Underworld is unchanging and unremarkable, until the day he is unexpectedly promoted and meets a stranger who will change the course of his existence. Caeneus learns that his significance is far greater than he could ever imagine: that he has within him a power which could alter the entire world.
Minos (Stanley Townsend)
Minos is President of Krete and father of Ari. A man with supreme ambition, and a ruthless core. There seems to be nothing he won’t sacrifice to achieve power and please the gods, apart from his daughter — he really does love her. However, a long-buried secret threatens to be Minos’s undoing: can he avoid his past? Chances are it could destroy him and Ari.
Ari (Leila Farzad)
Ari is President Minos’s daughter, and heir to his throne in Krete. She adores her father but has no relationship with her mother, who hates Ari because she accidentally killed her twin brother, Glaucus, when they were children. Ari is consumed by guilt and grief, living a sheltered life in the palace. However, a visit from the Furies reveals a colossal secret from Ari’s past — one which takes her on a journey of vengeance, making her an enemy of the gods along the way.
The Fates
The Fates are three timeless, immortal beings. They write the prophecies given to all humans at birth, and they exist beyond Zeus’s control. That is why he cannot abide them. Unbeknownst to Zeus, the Fates have actually been anticipating his fall for some time now. And have done quite a bit to help it along...
The Furies
Like the Fates, the Furies operate beyond the jurisdiction of Zeus and his family. They are three immortal women who wreak vengeance on humans whom they feel have escaped punishment. It’s quite subjective, and they don’t get to everyone... They are tasked with helping Ari uncover the truth about her past, and go about it in a mildly unconventional way, to say the least.
Kaos season 1 — cameos and secondary cast
Billie Piper - Cassandra
Robert Emms - Anatole
Mat Fraser - Daedalus
Sam Buttery - Atropos
Susan Wooldridge - Pious Agatha (Continued below)
Cathy Tyson - Alecto
Natalie Klamar - Meg
Donna Banya - Tisi
Rosie Cavaliero - Prue
Debi Mazar - Medusa (Continued below)
Joe McGann - Polyphemus
Selena Jones - Hippolyta II
Ramon Tikaram - Charon
Daniel Lawrence Taylor - Theseus
Michelle Greenidge - The Tacita
Suzy Eddie Izzard - Lachy
Created by Charlie Covell (End of the F***ing World, Truelove) season one of Kaos is available on Netflix from 29 August 2024.
