HBO Max has premiered Monsters of God, a five-part documentary series from Eric Goode and Jeremy McBride, the team behind Netflix's Tiger King, this time turning its focus to the murky, multibillion-dollar world of exotic reptile smuggling. The series explores how the trade in rare reptiles evolved from niche enthusiasm into a sprawling criminal ecosystem linking smugglers, collectors and major institutions, with figures involved sometimes described as "the Pablo Escobar of animal trafficking". Given the runaway cultural impact of Tiger King, the new show is being positioned as a potential successor with similarly outlandish characters and moral ambiguity.

Based on the 2008 true-crime book The Lizard King, the series traces the industry's roots to the 1960s and a cheese salesman turned reptile dealer, Hank Molt, who built a business selling to zoos before being federally indicted in 1977 on more than 200 smuggling counts, serving only 90 days in jail. His prosecution exposed a tight-knit, monopolistic power structure in the reptile trade, later carried on by his flamboyant apprentice Tommy Crutchfield, whose rivalry with Molt inspired the series' title. The film-makers describe the trade as fraught with betrayal, noting that even ostensibly law-abiding figures, such as institutions and dealers, were implicated in ethically dubious dealings.