Production has begun on the forthcoming Disney+ K-Drama The Koreans, which is a remake of the FX series The Americans. It stars Lee Byung-hun of Squid Game and Han Ji-min.

The Koreans

In the same vein as The Americans, The Koreans also centers characters living undercover. The main characters are North Korean spies living in South Korea. It is set during the early 1990s, during which modernization and democratization were taking South Korea by storm. That is why the two main characters are there to destabilize the country while they pose as an ordinary family. While avoiding detection, they must decide whether to be loyal to their cause or be true to themselves.

Park Eun-kyo, writer of Made in Korea, Mother, The Silent Sea, and others, has adapted the screenplay from Joe Weisberg and Joel Fields’ The Americans. The Koreans will air on Hulu in the United States and Disney+ internationally.

Lee Byung-hun is a well-known South Korean actor with dozens of projects under his belt. In addition to Squid Game, he is also known for both U.S. and South Korean roles such as Terminator Genisys, G.I. Joe: Rise of the Cobra, Joint Security Area, and A Bittersweet Life.

Han Ji-min is also a South Korean actor and has had many roles in period dramas and romantic shows. Some of her past series include Love Scout, Our Blues, Rooftop Prince, and her breakout role in Resurrection.

“I was the guy who developed The Americans,” Eric Schrier, now Disney’s head of international local originals, who previously served as president of FX Entertainment, told The Hollywood Reporter. “I’m still very close with Joe Weisberg and Joel Fields, the originals’ creators, so I wasn’t so sure about this idea, because it’s all very near and dear to my heart.” But he realized that the show made sense in a Korean context and could be a great addition to Disney+’s original content.

“The similarities of the two premises — North Koreans embedded in the South, instead of Russians spying in 1980s America — started to make sense to me,” Schrier told the outlet. “But it was really the passion of our Korean team that got me excited — and I could see that, because Korea is still divided, this could be a very culturally relevant story for the local audience, which is always the primary priority for our local original content.”

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