Steven Yeun returns to TV in Netflix's Pagans — what to know about the series that sparked a studio bidding war
A spec script so tightly guarded that bidders could read it on a locked app for one day only. Somewhere between 15 and 18 studios, platforms, and producers went after it anyway.
Netflix won that fight in September 2025 with a straight-to-series order, and in August 2026 the project finally got its lead: Steven Yeun will star in and executive produce Pagans, a supernatural drama from Say Nothing creator Joshua Zetumer. It's his first regular TV role since Beef, which won him an Emmy in 2023.
What Pagans is about
Yeun plays Gus, a man left as the sole caretaker of his two children after his wife dies. Netflix's official description is coy about the mechanics and blunt about the tone: the son is typical, the daughter — Alice — is not, and the strained father-daughter relationship turns into something considerably worse. The pitch promises emotion, horror, and comedy in roughly equal measure.
No other cast has been announced.
Who's behind it
- Joshua Zetumer — creator, showrunner, and executive producer. Emmy and WGA nominee for FX's Say Nothing; he also wrote Patriots Day and the 2014 RoboCop.
- Drew Goddard and Sarah Esberg — Goddard Textiles joined as executive producers in December 2025. Goddard wrote The Martian and directed The Cabin in the Woods.
- Steven Yeun and Christina Oh — executive producing through Celadon Pictures.
- Jonathan van Tulleken and Erica Kay — also executive producing.
The bidding war, briefly
Deadline reported that Zetumer's script triggered one of the more aggressive auctions of 2025, with 15 to 18 buyers circling. Access was controlled through a dedicated app that gave each reader a single day with the pages. Netflix ended it with a straight-to-series commitment, which is how a supernatural drama with no cast attached spent most of a year as one of the streamer's most-discussed unmade shows.
Why Yeun, and why Netflix again
Yeun and Netflix have been circling each other for a while. Beef, which he still executive produces, swept its Emmy category in 2023. He co-starred in Ben Affleck's Netflix film The Rip and is set to do it again in Affleck's Animals for the streamer. His Oscar nomination came from Minari in 2021, and his recent film credits include Nope, Mickey 17, Burning, and Sorry to Bother You.
He also has history with the genre. Yeun spent seven seasons as Glenn Rhee on The Walking Dead before that character's famously grim send-off in 2016.
When can you actually watch it?
Not soon. Filming is expected to start in October 2026, and Netflix hasn't set a premiere date or an episode count. A straight-to-series order does at least mean there's no pilot to fail.
Worth noting for the pedants: Zetumer's Say Nothing dealt in real-world violence and long memory. Pagans is his first swing at a haunting.
