Carole Baskin says she plans to watch the upcoming Tiger King sequel—but it won’t be for entertainment purposes.
The animal rights activists explained her intentions to Variety on Thursday night, just hours after Netflix shared a brief teaser of the docuseries directed by Eric Goode or Rebecca Chaiklin. Baskin, who was prominently featured in the original 2020 series, says she knew Goode and Chaiklin were gathering more content for a potential follow-up, but was surprised by how quickly it came together.
“I know some people who have been involved in it and they were doing more filming, so I assumed at some point they would come out with a Tiger King 2,” she said. “It took them five years to put together the first one, so I thought it would be a lot longer.”
Baskin was arguably the most polarizing figure in the original Tiger King series, which explored her rivalry with eccentric zoo owner Joe Exotic. Throughout the episodes, Joe accused Baskin of having a role in the 1997 disappearance of her husband, and even went so far as to make baseless murder claims. Joe is now serving time in prison for allegedly plotting a hit on Baskin; however, he has continued to deny the allegations.
Despite Joe’s murder-for-hire conviction, it was Baskin who seemingly became the Tiger King villain.
“My phone started ringing off the hook for three months straight, people cursing at me and telling me that they wanted to burn the place to the ground and they wanted to kill me and my family and the cats,” she told Variety. “So whatever Tiger King 2 does, I’ll have that same reaction from the public that has been misled. I’ll have to spend a lot of time explaining to them how they have been misled, which means I have to watch it.”
Baskin suggested she was not involved in the forthcoming sequel, as she had previously slammed its directors for the way she was portrayed in the original series.
“I wouldn’t call Eric Goode or Rebecca Chaiklin true documentarians,” she continued. “I mean that was just a reality show dumpster fire … I think there’s a Mark Twain quote about a lie making its way around the world faster than the truth can get its pants on, and that’s true because people just love a good lie.”
Netflix has not announced a premiere date for Tiger King season 2.
