Since Yeon Sang-ho’s Train to Busan (2016) zombies have become a running feature of Korean content, especially on streaming platforms. It began with Netflix’s Kingdom (2019) spanning two seasons and a spin-off that was a gamechanger for the industry with OTT services pumping significant investment into prestige content.

While the sub-genre of Korean zombies dates back to 1980 with Gang Beom-gu’s A Monstrous Corpse, it wasn’t until the contemporary era where it has experienced immense popularity.

There were, indeed, Korean films in the 2000s and early 2010s that laid the seeds for Yeon’s seminal feature. Kim Jung-min’s experimental and low-budget film Dark Forest (2006) was pioneering in its combination of zombies and shamanistic characteristics with omnibus films later becoming important in the lead up to Train to Busan. Horror Stories (2012) featured the K-zombie short, Ambulance on the Death Zone, while Im Pil-sung’s A Brave New World in Doomsday Book (2012) and Han Ji-seung’s I Saw You in the KAFA 3D omnibus Mad Sad Bad (2014) were further evidence of the appetite directors had for K-zombies.

There were also indications among audiences that there was a market in Korea for flesh eating zombies with the surprise success of Marc Foster’s World War Z (2013) that amassed over 5 million admissions in 2013. The romantic zombie comedy Warm Bodies (2013) starring Nicholas Hoult also sold more than a million tickets earlier that year.  The zombie series The Walking Dead was also popular in Korea illustrating the potential for a title like Train to Busan to break out.

Following Yeon’s smash hit, it was only a matter of time before other zombie content was released. The period zombie feature, Rampant (2018) starring Hyun Bin was one of the first high profile titles before Yeon’s standalone sequel Peninsula (2020) and Il Cho’s #Alive (2020) that found a home on Netflix were released.  Yeon’s animated prequel Seoul Station (2016) was made before Yeon’s first live action film making it one of the earlier examples of the sub-genre.

The K-zombie craze has led to more eccentric titles like Lee Min-jae’s The Odd Family: Zombie on Sale (2019) that secured a number of festival invitations including the SITGES and Fribourg International Film Festival.

Streaming platforms such as Netflix have continued to produce further K-zombie content with the coming of-age series All of Us Are Dead (2022) becoming a global hit and turning its young cast (Park Ji-hu, Yoon Chan-young) into stars overnight. It accumulated over 420 million hours in viewing time in its first 30 days.

When compared to zombies in Hollywood and the West, Korean zombies are sometimes seen as quicker as captured in many of the scenes in and out of the KTX train in Train to Busan. The films and series have also delved into social issues with Train to Busan making references to poor crisis management and issues of social class, while All of Us are Dead, for instance, turns to the classroom, education and bullying.

This week we take a look at where K-zombies are heading in 2025 and 2026 beginning with the recent series Newtopia (2025) and then the film My Daughter is a Zombie (2025). We finish by briefly looking at one of Yeon Sang-ho’s upcoming projects, Colony (2026).

Newtopia

Streaming on the local OTT platform Coupang Play that is gaining ground on Netflix with 3.2 million subscribers at the end of 2023 is Newtopia. It stars Park Jeong-min and Jisoo from Blackpink as a couple who have broken up but seek to get back together after zombie outbreak engulfs South Korea. It’s based on Han Sang-woon’s novel Influenza (2012).

Reminiscent of The Odd Family: Zombie on Sale that moves away from some of the darker tones of the genre infusing the narrative with humor, Newtopia adds an eccentric flair as it harks back to B-genre films. Yet, 19-rated, it also ensures it has enough of the graphic zombie thrills to entertain viewers, but it has left some audiences divided with its change in tone. It features less of the heroism seen in titles like Train to Busan.

It's directed by Yoon Sung-hyun who helmed the award-winning Bleak Night (2010) and the dystopian thriller Time to Hunt (2020) which both adopt bleak tones and focus on the friendships between the male protagonists that is also apparent in Newtopia with its conscript characters. Yoon is one of dozens of Korean film directors who have made what is increasingly seen as a necessary transition into streaming content.

Newtopia is also reflective of how K-pop stars are increasingly working in other areas of the wider content industry with Blackpink’s Lisa starring in the third season of The White Lotus and Jennie Kim starred in The Idol (2023).

My Daughter Is A Zombie

Being marketed as a zombie comedy-drama, My Daughter Is A Zombie based on the webtoon by Lee Yun-chang is one of many titles in today’s ecosystem that is sourced from a webcomic.

It stars Cho Jung-seok Pilot (2023) as a father who utilizes his skills as a wild animal trainer to try and prevent his daughter from becoming a violent zombie after she is infected amidst an outbreak. Cho is joined by Lee Jung-eun and Cho Yeo-jeong from Parasite (2019) along with Yoon Kyung-ho and Cho Yu-ri. It’s directed by Pil Gam-sung, his sophomore feature following the hit Hostage: Missing Celebrity (2021) that pulled in 1.6 million admissions despite it being released during the middle of the pandemic.

With its themes of family, relationships and comedy, it’s possible it shares much in common with titles like Newtopia and The Odd Family: Zombie on Sale as creators seek to inject the genre with new life.

The film is being distributed and financed by the studio NEW and produced by Studio N that were involved in the successful dystopian series Sweet Home (2020-2024) and the psychological thriller Unlocked (2023) that was released as a Netflix Original in 2023.

My Daughter Is A Zombie is due to be released later on in 2025.

Gunche

Yeon Sang-ho is one of the busiest filmmakers in the industry. The second season of Hellbound dropped on Netflix last October after premiering at the Busan International Film Festival. It was his second series of 2024 after Parasyte: The Grey (2024).  His new film Revelations produced by Alfonso Cuaron was released on Netflix on March 21 and his next film, a mystery drama, The Ugly was shot last summer and is expected to hit screens this year.

Yet, he is also currently shooting another film, Colony, a zombie thriller, that was announced in March. The Korean title, Gunche refers to colony but usually within a biological context. Produced by Showbox, it’s set to become of their tentpole features next year and stars Jun Ji-hyun, Go Soo, Ji Chang-wook, and Koo Kyo-hwan. The film’s plot centers on the lockdown of a building after the spread of an unidentified virus and those infected evolve in surprising ways.

According to Showbox, “the culmination of Yeon Sang-ho’s universe spanning from Train to Busan to Peninsula.”

The announcement of the project is intriguing, not least given how the industry is producing fewer big budget titles. While Train to Busan and its spectacular set-pieces was a gargantuan hit, Peninsula underperformed at the box office and many other expensive films have done so since then. But the news that Yeon is now continuing to work on productions in the theatrical market is reassuring for an industry that is struggling – total admissions (5.47 million) were 52.2 percent down in February compared to the previous year.

It also marks the big screen return of Jun Ji-hyun who was last in a feature film in 2015 with Assassination (2015). Many of the projects she has featured in have been hugely successful My Sassy Girl (2001), The Thieves (2012), My Love from the Star (2013), Assassination