Carole Baskin is suing Netflix for including footage of her in the anticipated sequel series to their hit true crime show, ‘Tiger King.’ In her recently filed lawsuit, the animal rights activist is insisting the docuseries’ producers and streaming service remove all footage of her for their upcoming show.
The owner of the Big Cat Rescue was heavily featured in the original series. But she has asked a judge to also prevent ‘Tiger King’s producers and Netflix from including footage of her and her Tampa-based non-profit animal sanctuary in the project’s promotional materials.
According to the documents Baskin filed, the new footage of her that the streaming platform included in the trailer for the show’s next season completely misrepresents reality . She mainly emphasized that she’s not willingly participating in the show’s next cycle.
The activist further went on to explains in her lawsuit that all the footage of her in the Season 2 trailer is just unused material that was recorded for, but wasn’t included in, the initial season of ‘Tiger King.’ She also argued that producers are simply repackaging the material to make it seem like she’s given new interviews.
But Baskin added that she had nothing to do with the production of the upcoming cycle. She also claimed that she never realized she’d be portrayed as a villain in the docuseries’ original season, and the entire project undermined her true mission – protecting the title animals from people like Joe Exotic.
Baskin stated that she filed the lawsuit because the contract she signed to participate in ‘Tiger King’s first cycle doesn’t give producers a right to continue using the footage they captured of her for subsequent seasons and other follow-up projects. She’s asking the judge to force Netflix to stop using footage of her in the sophomore season’s promotional trailers and final product.
A majority of the show’s first season focused on Baskin’s first husband, Don Lewis, who went missing in the late 1990s. She believes ‘Tiger King’s first season made her look responsible for her husband’s disappearance. He was later declared legally dead in August 2002, which marked the fifth anniversary of his disappearance.
