Drew Goddard, Sarah Esberg Board Netflix’s Joshua Zetumer Supernatural Drama Series ‘Pagans’ As EPs

EXCLUSIVE: In another competitive situation involving Pagans, the supernatural drama by Say Nothing creator Joshua Zetumer, Drew Goddard and his executive Sarah Esberg have joined the Netflix series as executive producers through Goddard Textiles.

Goddard and Esberg were among a slew of producers who pursued the high-profile assignment of teaming up with Zetumer after Netflix landed Pagans in a massive bidding war in September with a straight-to-series order.

According to sources, Goddard’s extensive experience in the genre TV series space through his work on Lost, Buffy the Vampire Slayer and spinoff Angel, The Good Place, Alias and Daredevil (as well as in features with movies like The Martian, World War Z, The Cabin In the Woods and Cloverfield), played a major role in his company being selected.

Pagans follows a man who becomes the sole caretaker of his two children after the tragic loss of his wife. While his son is typical, his daughter, Alice, is anything but. What starts as a strained father-daughter relationship soon evolves into something far more sinister. Equal parts emotional, horrifying and humorous, Pagans uses genre to unearth all the dark thoughts that parents have, the kind of thoughts mom and dad are never supposed to talk about…

As Deadline reported in September, some 15-18 studios, platforms and production companies took part in the heated auction for Zetumer’s spec script, which went through multiple rounds before Netflix emerged as the winner.

Zetumer is writer, executive producer and showrunner of Pagans. Goddard and Esberg executive produce for Goddard Textiles, with the company’s Andrea Massaro serving at a co-executive producer.

For Goddard, Pagans falls outside of the first-look deal he has for Goddard Textiles at 20th Television, part of Disney TV Studios. At 20th TV, the company has the hit ABC sophomore drama series High Potential, created by Goddard based on a French and Belgian format, and the upcoming Hulu series Phony starring Connie Britton and Sam Nivola.

On the feature side, Goddard, Oscar nominee for The Martian, recently co-wrote Project Hail Mary, starring Ryan Gosling and Sandra Hüller, which is being released in March 2026 with him and Esberg exec producing. Goddard also is writing and directing the next installment of The Matrix franchise for Warner Bros., produced by Goddard and Esberg via Goddard Textiles alongside the franchise’s original co-writer and co-director Lana Wachowski as executive producer.

Prior to joining Goddard Textiles as President, Esberg was at Plan B where she executive produced such movies as the Oscar-winning Moonlight as well as If Beale Street Could Talk, Okja and Beautiful Boy, as well as TV series including Netflix’s The OA and Starz’s Sweetbitter.

Goddard and Esberg are repped by UTA and Narrative.