‘Tiger King’: Fans Sound off About New Episode Plans

Tiger King filmmakers Eric Goode and Rebecca Chaiklin are turning their cameras toward the 2003 tiger mauling that ended the Siegfried & Roy show for a new episode of the hit Netflix series. The first season, Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem and Mandess, focused on the bizarre story of Joseph Maldonado-Passage, better known as Joe Exotic, and his rivalry with Carole Baskin. Tiger King fans have been divided on the new Tiger King content coming, especially since the first season was so controversial.

Dr. James Liu, the associate director at Goode’s Turtle Conservatory, called The Hollywood Reporter Thursday for information on Chris Lawrence, the former Siegfried & Roy tiger handler who challenged Siegfried Fischacher and Roy Horn’s official story on the 2003 mauling. Lawrence, who said he was diagnosed with PTSD because of the incident, alleged there were human errors to blame and the story Horn and Fischbacher told the public was not entirely true.

Liu told THR the team behind Tiger King is now working on a follow-up episode about the 2003 incident. Goode Films hoped the new episode would be a “higher-minded corrective” to the original series and a better follow-up than The Tiger King and I, a Joel McHale-hosted after-show special Goode was not involved with. Liu hoped Lawrence would respond to Fischbacher’s response to Lawrence’s 2019 THR profile. Fischbacher refused to contribute a response when Lawrence’s profile was first published, but later went on Good Morning America to dispute the former handler’s version of events. Horn died on Friday at age 75, following complications of COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus.

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The original seven Tiger King episodes were first critically praised and became the most-watched series in Netflix’s history. More than 34 million viewers watched the show in its first 10 days of release, and now multiple dramatic projects about Joe Exotic are in the works. However, the show became controversial as it focused more on the sensational aspects of Maldonado-Passage’s life instead of the more serious issues of conservation and animal abuse.

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Goode himself even told Vanity Fair he had some regrets about the show. “After spending years with these subjects the project moved in a different direction. Netflix is very adept at making binge-worthy television and with these larger-than-life subjects that was pretty easy to do,” he told the magazine at the time. “However, my goal is and has always been the same, which is to raise awareness and help save the species.”

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A Goode Films spokeswoman told THR it was not true that the new episodes are “going in a more conversational route.” Netflix did not comment. Liu also did not explain how Lawrence could take part in the show if he agrees to, as the coronavirus pandemic would make it difficult for him to be interviewed by a full crew.

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