Everything We Know About The Tiger King Sequel
It feels like just yesterday that we met troubled zoo owner Joe Exotic and his archnemesis, the animal conservationist with the mysterious past Carole Baskin, in Netflix's docuseries Tiger King. (For some of you, it was just yesterday. Hey, we understand; you've had a backlog to work through lately.) All seven episodes of the show only dropped on March 20th, but now there's already talk of a follow-up documentary that promises to dig deeper into some of the unanswered questions left at the end of the Netflix series.
This follow-up isn't exactly a true sequel, as it will be airing on the true crime channel Investigation Discovery (ID), rather than Netflix. Many viewers were left wanting more at the end of Tiger King's seven episodes, and even though there are rumors that Netflix plans to drop one more installment, a supplementary documentary might be just what the doctor ordered. Titled Investigating the Strange World of Joe Exotic, the follow up seems poised to please viewers hungry for answers. Let's take a look at what we know so far about what this follow up has in store.
The Tiger King sequel will focus on Carole Baskin's husband
Although Joe Exotic was the flamboyant hook that got viewers invested in Tiger King, his longtime rival Carole Baskin emerged as one of the series' most intriguing figures. At first we meet Baskin as a tireless crusader for ending the legality of domestic big cat ownership in the United States. However, as the series goes on, we learn some... intriguing tidbits about her past.
The most salacious of these concern her first husband, Don Lewis, and his mysterious disappearance. Although exactly what happened to Lewis remains a mystery to this day, Tiger King presented some compelling evidence (and, if we're being honest, a whole lot more juicy gossip) suggesting that Baskin herself may have been involved. Baskin admonished the Netflix documentary, calling it "salacious" and full of "lies and innuendo." So, we imagine she'll be even less pleased to learn that the ID follow up series will be taking a closer look at the case of Don Lewis.
In a statement about its upcoming sequel, the network said: "Love her or hate her, Carole is now in the center ring of the big cat circus... Is she a selfless crusader and protector of animals, who found unimaginable strength despite the mysterious disappearance of her husband? Or are we witnessing Carole Baskin's master plan finally take effect? No one seems to be talking — except for one man — and that man is the center of ID's upcoming investigative series" (via Entertainment Weekly).
The Tiger King sequel will heavily feature Joe Exotic
Even though ID purports to be digging deeper into Don Lewis' disappearance, they will be turning to the world's biggest Carole Baskin Fed Her Husband to Tigers truther to aid in their investigation: Joe Exotic himself. Those who watched Tiger King know that in addition to growing the GW Zoo, Joe Exotic's greatest passion in life has been going after Baskin, and trying to prove that she was responsible for her first husband's death. (Again, if we're being fair, her biggest passion in life was trying to utterly ruin him, but still.) ID says that its new series they will be pulling from Mr. Exotic's vast knowledge of the Lewis case for their follow up. In a different description of the special released to the press, the network said, "This is the investigation you didn't get to see, revealing the secrets only Joe knows, the exclusive footage that has never been shown" (via The Wrap).
Obviously, it would be hard to make a follow-up to Tiger King without including the Tiger King himself, but it remains to be seen if Exotic will help or hinder the sequel's attempts to get to the bottom of Lewis' disappearance. To call Joe a biased and unreliable narrator would be putting it mildly, and his personal hatred for Baskin may make it hard to take anything he claims seriously. Also, he's currently in prison for allegedly hiring a hitman to murder Baskin, so... there's that.
When will we see more Tiger King?
On April 4th, Jeff Lowe, one of the subjects of Tiger King and the current proprietor of Exotic's GW Zoo, claimed that Netflix had been filming on his property and are planning on releasing an additional episode of the docuseries within the next week. As of now, there's no confirmation that this is true — and if it is, whether it will be a proper eighth episode, or some kind of reunion special. If the rumors about Netflix dropping an extra Tiger King episode are to be believed, we could be getting another taste of the wild world of Joe Exotic before the middle of April.
As for Investigating the Strange World of Joe Exotic, we'll be waiting a bit longer for the ID follow-up. The network announcement didn't make any official mention of a premiere date for the series, which appears to be in early development — although Variety has reported that, barring any hiccups in production, the series is expected to drop by the end of 2020.