By Josh Nason
Among the many headlines that came out Tuesday, I certainly didn’t expect a version of The Americans set in South Korea being among them.
But here we are as The Koreans, described as a big budget, localized, re-imagining of the classic FX series, has been greenlit by Disney+ for the Korean audience.
The show, which doesn’t have any anticipated release date set, will focus on a pair of North Korean spies pretending to be a married couple in South Korea during the 1990s.
According to this piece in The Hollywood Reporter, the idea was an organic one that came “from Disney’s content relationships in Korea, rather than any top-down corporate mandate to exploit legacy IP from the studio’s libraries. It will be the company’s first local-language adaptation of one of its hit scripted series, and it will boast one of the largest budgets for Disney+’s Asian originals to date.”
It will star Lee Byung-hun who fans of Squid Game will instantly recognize.
So, you’ll need a VPN in order to check it out unless it somehow makes its way to U.S. audiences with subtitles. If it’s good, I could definitely see that happening as I feel like audiences are more open to shows and movies with subtitles, thinking specifically of FX’s Shogun, coincidentally a Disney project.
If you haven’t seen The Americans, it stars Matthew Rhys and Keri Russell as a pair of Russian spies playing an American married couple in the 1980s when tensions between both countries were very high. It was nominated for 18 Emmys and won four of them over six seasons. I was a big fan of the show, although I thought the last two seasons were a bit slow in spots.
Rhys, Russell and show creators Joe Weisberg and Joel Fields were all spoken with about The Koreans and reportedly gave it their blessing. I mean, why would they not, right?
