Paul Bettany and Steven Yeun team up for Pagans, Netflix’s creepy new horror series

Just when you thought Paul Bettany would be off playing synthezoid saviours forever, he’s swapped his red android bodysuit for something a tad more sinister. Bettany is heading to Netflix for a brand new horror drama series called Pagans, teaming up with Steven Yeun – the Invincible lad himself, if you’ve got an ear for animation – and it sounds like a proper weird one.

Pagans landed a straight-to-series order from Netflix earlier this year.

Here’s the setup: Yeun plays Gus, a widower doing his best as the only parent to two kids after the death of his wife. There’s the usual emotional fallout you’d expect, except – to put it mildly – things start getting very creepy very quickly with his daughter. The show’s pitched as a mix of emotional gut-punch, horror, and a bit of humour (presumably the type that makes you more uncomfortable than amused). So if you like your family dramas with a generous serving of supernatural dread, this one’s probably for you.

Who’s Who in Pagans?

• Steven Yeun – Gus, single dad wrestling with something much darker than family therapy.
• Paul Bettany – Mag, described as a charismatic stranger (vague, but you can imagine Bettany leaning right into that).
• Sabine Grace, Logan Kim, Marin Ireland, Intae Kim – supporting cast, but details on who’s playing whom are still properly under wraps.

Exactly how Bettany’s Mag connects to Yeun’s family is being kept very hush-hush for now, which usually means there’s a nasty twist lurking somewhere.

What’s the Deal Behind the Scenes?

Here’s something you don’t always see: Yeun’s pulling double duty, starring and executive producing. The creator and showrunner is Joshua Zetumer (he wrote RoboCop, so expect a bit of genre savviness), with Christina Oh, Drew Goddard, Sarah Esberg, Goddard Textiles, Jonathan van Tulleken, and Erica Kay all producing as well. Bettany’s just along for the ride on-screen – for now.

As for Bettany, you probably know him best from all those years hanging about in the Marvel Universe – he started as Tony Stark’s posh computer J.A.R.V.I.S., became Vision, and is now leading the upcoming VisionQuest series, a WandaVision sequel. More interestingly, he’s fresh off the 2025 miniseries Amadeus, and has a Tom Ford film, Cry to Heaven, plus a feature of The Collaboration, on the way. At 55, he could probably do without more CGI make-up for a bit.

Yeun, meanwhile, nearly joined the MCU too, originally lined up to play Sentry/Void in Thunderbolts before scheduling got in the way and Lewis Pullman took over (one for the trivia nerds).

No word yet from Netflix on when you can actually watch Pagans – the streamer greenlit the whole thing straight-to-series earlier this year, so presumably it’s still bubbling away in the supernatural cauldron.