Tyler Piccotti, Andrew Daniels
·4 min read
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Netflix has given us our first look at Lyle and Erik Menendez from its highly-anticipated true-crime limited series about the infamous brothers. The streamer released an eerie new trailer for Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story on Tuesday, which shows actors Nicholas Alexander Chavez and Cooper Koch portraying the convicted killers for the first time.
In the teaser, the brothers are seen posing for a family portrait with their parents José and Mary “Kitty” Menendez—played by Academy Award winner Javier Bardem and Chloë Sevigny, respectively—before sharing an embrace amid the sound of a gunshot. The real Lyle and Erik were sentenced to life in prison without parole in 1996 for gruesomely murdering their parents seven years earlier inside their California home.
Monsters marks the second edition of Ryan Murphy’s hit anthology series, which featured actor Evan Peters as Jeffrey Dahmer in 2022, and the release date is just weeks away. Here’s everything we know so far about the upcoming series and its account of the crimes.
When does Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez release?
Similar to the first season, Monsters will consist of 10 episodes. The series releases in full on Netflix on September 19.
Who are playing the Menendez brothers?
Nicholas Alexander Chavez and Cooper Koch were cast as the brothers all the way back in June 2023. Chavez is portraying Lyle, while Koch is playing younger brother Erik.
Chavez is best known for his role as Spencer Cassadine on the ABC soap opera General Hospital from 2021 through 2024. Koch appeared in the 2022 movies Swallowed and They/Them, the latter also starring Kevin Bacon.
Chavez, 24, and Koch, 28, are both older than the real Menendez brothers were at the time of the murders. Lyle was 21 years old and Erik a mere 18 years old.
Who else is in the Monsters cast?
Deadline reported in January 2024 that 55-year-old Javier Bardem and 49-year-old Chloë Sevigny, an Academy Award nominee, were slated to play José and Kitty, respectively. Monsters is the second major TV role for Sevigny this year. She portrayed socialite C.Z. Guest in the FX series Feud: Capote vs. The Swans, also produced by Murphy.
Monsters also added Nathan Lane as investigative journalist Dominick Dunne, who covered the brothers’ highly publicized trial for Vanity Fair. Ari Graynor plays Leslie Abramson, the prominent Los Angeles defense attorney who became the lead counsel for Erik Menendez.
Other supporting cast members include Leslie Grossman, Dallas Roberts, Jason Butler Harner, and Enrique Murciano.
Are the real Lyle and Erik involved in the series?
While neither Lyle nor Erik have publicly commented on the series and aren’t involved in its production, the new trailer suggests their account of the murders played a significant influence.
In the new teaser trailer, Kitty tells José in a voiceover, “I need to know what’s going on with you and the boys.” The father responds, “It is over. Stop. I’m going to fix this family.”
During their 1993 trial, the Menendez brothers argued they killed their parents in self-defense after suffering years of sexual abuse by José that Kitty knew about. Netflix’s synopsis for the series also reflects this: “During their trials, the brothers cited years of abuse as the reason for murdering their parents. However, prosecutors argued that their motive was to get their hands on the family fortune.”
Although Lyle and Erik are only indirectly involved in Monsters, Netflix does have exclusive access to the brothers for an upcoming documentary project.
Why is the Menendez brothers’ case so infamous?
In November 2022 following the success of Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story, which eclipsed 1 billion hours streamed, Netflix ordered two follow-up seasons and promised to “tell the stories of other monstrous figures who have impacted society,” according to Deadline. That certainly describes the case of the Menendez Brothers, who shot their parents José and Kitty to death in their Beverly Hills home on August 20, 1989.
It took seven years and three trials, spanning thousands of hours of TV coverage, for the Menendez brothers to be found guilty of their parents’ murders. On July 2, 1996, they were sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. But in between the killings and the brothers’ conviction, the Menendez murders became one of the most famous criminal cases of the late 20th century thanks to its potent mix of family drama, Hollywood connections, dramatic testimony, and cable TV’s ability to blanket the airwaves with coverage.
Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story isn’t be the first TV show or movie to tell the story of the Menendez family. Until the upcoming season releases, you can watch the tragic, grisly events unfold in the drama Menendez: Blood Brothers, the NBC series Law and Order True Crime: the Menendez Murders, and the documentary Truth and Lies: The Menendez Brothers — American Sons, American Murders.
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