In KAOS, Zeus (Jeff Goldblum) is equal parts egomaniacal and paranoid — a combustive combination that spells danger for the mortals over whom he intends to assert dominance. Don’t let the charming smile and chic leisure wear fool you — just a glimpse of the KAOS teaser hints at the powerful but insecure “king of the goddamn gods” (his words). That complex swirl of traits is what drew Goldblum to the role. He told Netflix: “Our Zeus is the three c’s — complicated, charismatic, [and] cruel. As well as several other letters.”

KAOS creator Charlie Covell has been “nerdy about Greek myths” since childhood. They told Netflix that the series stemmed from this idea: “What if the king of the gods was having a midlife crisis? What would that look like?”

That rumination led us here, to a swaggy Zeus who lives lavishly on Mount Olympus and demands the devotion of the humans he oversees. Of course, the story KAOS tells has several other major players, so before you dive into the darkly comedic drama, get familiar with the cast, the characters, and their places within Greek mythology.

Justin Downing/Netflix

Jeff Goldblum

King of the gods and a megalomaniac in a tracksuit, Zeus gets angsty when he finds a new wrinkle on his forehead, convinced that it’s evidence of an ancient prophecy coming to pass: that he and his family of Olympian gods are going to fall from power.

Goldblum tells Tudum that Zeus’ flashy fashion was a way into the god’s head: “I’ve flirted with tracksuits my whole life. I thought, ‘Hey, this is my chance to really tracksuit it up.’ Then, [there are the] Balenciaga sneakers I wear through the show. My wife had given me this heirloom that had come down through her family. This picture of Napoleon on a gold coin made into a ring [that] she had. She said, ‘Here, you take it.’ And only for this show, I said, ‘Hey, maybe that’s Zeusian.’ I put it on, everybody said, ‘Yep, that’s it, looks good to me.’ So, I loved all that.” 

As Zeus attempts to shore up his regime, he makes dangerous enemies and ignores well-intentioned advice, taking actions that threaten the survival of humanity itself.

Janet McTeer as Hera (center)

Daniel Escale/Netflix

Janet McTeer

Hera is queen of the gods and she’s married to Zeus … who also happens to be her brother. (The ancient Greek pantheon was very much a family affair.) As Zeus becomes more deranged, Hera is placed in real jeopardy — not to mention, she’s carrying an explosive secret that could threaten her very existence if Zeus discovers it.

McTeer was drawn to Hera because she’s a “complicated, evil, hideous” character, the actor told Netflix. “She genuinely loves her husband, she loves power and all things decadent. She’s a complicated person rather than just flat-out evil. She’s not even a trope. She’s not even an archetype, because she’s a god. That makes it interesting.”

Goldblum speaks highly of McTeer’s performance, telling Tudum, “I'm so in love with her talent, and her humanity, and her soulfulness. She’s just amazing. She was a great partner, and opened me up, and brought things out of me that otherwise wouldn't have occurred.”

Justin Downing/Netflix

David Thewlis

Hades is the god of death and Zeus’ middle brother (see? Ruling over the affairs of mortals is a family business). He works harder than anyone else — no breaks when you’re looking after the Underworld — and he’s the only member of the family to take Zeus’ prophecy seriously. His attempts at helping, however, backfire spectacularly.

Justin Downing/Netflix

Rakie Ayola

Persephone is the queen of the Underworld and wife of Hades. She’s spent much of her life dispelling rumors — propagated through millennia of classical, Renaissance and modern art — that she was captured by him and made a child bride. Persephone adores Hades and married him willingly. It’s his family she can’t stand.

Ayola believes Persephone and Hades are “the only happy couple in the series,” telling Netflix, “They really love each other. [Persephone’s] really smart but she’s also very much her own person. She’s helped the family business, but she’s very aware that her in-laws think she’s beneath them. She’s come to terms with that because she can stand back and say, ‘You’re all damaged individuals. I get it on some level, but I don’t understand your ill treatment of each other, and particularly of Hades.’ ”

Daniel Escale/Netflix

Cliff Curtis

Poseidon is god of the sea and Zeus’ younger brother. Enjoying his chill life on a yacht near Krete, Poseidon is more of a relaxed pleasure-seeker than a harbinger of doom — Speedos not spears. But Zeus’ paranoia changes that, threatening the fabric of the family and putting both Poseidon and someone he loves in danger.

Daniel Escale/Netflix

Stephen Dillane

Prometheus is Zeus’ oldest friend. He’s also the person Zeus keeps chained to a cliff, and whose liver is pecked out every day by an eagle, as punishment for stealing fire from the gods and sharing it with humanity. According to Covell, the rivalry between Zeus and Prometheus is “the spine of the show” — a personification of the conflict between the elites and the masses, between divine power and free will. Limited by physical manacles, there’s little Prometheus can do to help in the plot against his jailor, but he’s part of an ancient, much greater plan to take down Zeus and the gods. He’s just praying that it finally works.

Aurora Perrineau

Riddy has no idea of her cosmic significance — she barely feels significant in her own life. She’s the wife of Orpheus, a world-famous musician, so her luxurious life seems enviable from the outside, but Riddy is deeply unhappy and she knows she needs to make a change. And as fate would have it, a chance encounter one morning at a supermarket offers just that.

In most retellings of Greek mythology, “Riddy” is known as Eurydice. She’s a legendary figure, but a largely passive one, which Perrineau was intrigued to explore. She tells Tudum, “Riddy doesn’t really speak up for herself a lot. She’s a little bit more internal with her thoughts and feelings and doesn’t have an outlet. I think she doesn’t even know how to express [herself] to [Orpheus], which is why he’s well, maybe, a little delusional.”

Audiences may find Riddy and Orpheus’s one-sided romance painful to watch, but Perrineau believes it’s an accurate depiction of how some real-life relationships play out. “I think there's always a give-and-take,” she says. “If someone's giving a feeling and the other person’s not receiving it, that's kind of how it goes when people fall out of love with each other. It's a little bit like the other person doesn't understand what has gone awry.”

Justin Downing/Netflix

Killian Scott

Married to Riddy, Orpheus is a rock star. He’s got a big heart, and an ego to match. When his life is ripped out from underneath him, Orpheus has a choice: to accept the cards he has been dealt, or attempt to defy death itself.

Scott tells Tudum that he was excited by Covell’s contemporary spin on the character. “The mythological version [of Orpheus] is the great poet and lyre player. Charlie’s smarts to reimagine that — what the hell would that be in our world? Well, it’s the most famous rock star, pop star kind of guy. When I read the thing, I just got it. I didn’t need to go on any particular journey. Charlie did a great job.”

As a performer, Scott embodyied this “Beatlemania” iteration of Orpheus with “instinctive reaction,” he says. “As an actor, I find that the writer normally has done all the work for you, and if you're fluid and open-minded, you just play in the moment. I've never really found there’s some great journey I need to go on to become the thing. With Orpheus, I felt there’s this sort of innate warmth and kindness. I got the impression of an individual who really handled that level of fame incredibly well.”

Nabhaan Rizwan

Dionysus is Zeus’ favorite son, and the life of every party. His mother was mortal but when Hera turned her into a bee, Zeus made Dionysus a full god — the keeper of pleasure, madness, and wild frenzy. But don’t get it twisted. Rizwan tells Tudum Dionysus is “not all about the wine and the good times.” When Dionysus finds himself bored and fed up with being treated like a child, he seeks more power and respect from his family.

Throughout history, people have felt the lure of the god of wine, and Rizwan feels the same. “What isn’t there to love about Dionysus?” he says. “He dresses great. You can’t get a sense of this watching, but he smells great. I guarantee you he smells great. Definitely some citrus in there.” Aside from a quality fragrance collection, Rizwan believes Dionysus also has ambition. “He’s kind of not got a life. He’s just out here partying and everyone else has gone off and got proper jobs. The god version of proper jobs, which is part of Dionysus’ dilemma. He wants something real to do in the world. He feels something deeper.”

McTeer believes Rizwan’s Dionysus shows how getting everything you want is “just not enough.” She tells Tudum, “If you’re a rich, young kid, and you’ve never had to work for anything and you’ve had everything given to you, you get messed up because we need to work for something. We need to feel we’ve achieved something.” His journey in the first season really helps him figure out what he ultimately desires. 

Justin Downing/Netflix

Misia Butler

Caeneus has been dead for ten years, living an unchanging and unremarkable life in the Underworld until the day he’s unexpectedly promoted and meets a stranger who will change the course of his existence. “Through that, he becomes a reluctant hero,” Butler teased to Netflix. Coincidentally, Caeneus is one of Butler’s favorite characters from the myths, and he’s thrilled with Covell’s interpretation. “What Charlie’s done really well with the entire show is getting these human characters out of these myths,” he said. “They’re characters that have always been amazingly nuanced and ambiguous, but Charlie has transplanted them into different contexts and woven them together with other myths.”

Speaking to Tudum, Covell adds: “In versions of the myth, he becomes a very macho, violent warrior. Our Caeneus is the opposite of that. He is a warrior in a much gentler, much more self-sacrificing way.”

Stanley Townsend as Minos (center)

Stanley Townsend

Minos is the 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. He really loves his daughter, but a long-buried secret threatens to be Minos’ undoing.

Justin Downing/Netflix

Leila Farzad

Ari is President Minos’ daughter and heir to his throne in Krete. She adores her father but has no relationship with her mother (Shila Ommi), who holds Ari responsible for the accidental death of her twin brother, Glaucus, when they both were children. Ari is consumed by guilt and grief, living a sheltered life in the palace. However, unforeseen events take Ari on a journey of vengeance, one that Farzad says showcases “a much bigger and more cosmic purpose.”

Playing a mortal who becomes swept up in the affairs of the gods, Farzad relates to Ari “as a normal person who’s had a very tricky upbringing,” she told Netflix. “I imagine her as heartbroken from the moment she was born because she has a terrible prophecy hanging over her head. That means she will forever feel bad and horrified by what she puts her parents through.” Acknowledging Ari’s “dysfunctional life and a lack of love,” Farzad finds a resonant message as her character struggles against the prophecy that seems to define her: “In the broadest sense, it’s about questioning if any of us has the power to change our fate.”

Justin Downing/Netflix

Billie Piper

Cassandra is a Trojan seeking refuge in Krete, who is subject to a terrible curse: She tells the truth, but no one believes a word she says. Will Riddy be the first person to listen to her?

Justin Downing/Netflix

Debi Mazar

Medusa has been dead for a long time. It feels like forever (the Underworld can do that to a person). She’s in charge of Riverbank Management at the Lethe, and something of an adversary to Riddy and Caeneus when first we meet her. But is Medusa just a snake-haired bureaucrat, or is she part of something more sinister?

Justin Downing/Netflix

Suzy Eddie Izzard

Lachy is one of the three Fates: a timeless, immortal being. The Fates write the prophecies given to all humans at birth, and they exist beyond Zeus’ 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 …

Additional reporting by Ariana Romero.

KAOS reigns on Aug. 29. Check back with Tudum for future updates.