The Koreans: Disney+ Remake of The Americans

Normally I would temper my expectations for a Disney remake of one of the best shows to ever air on television. That said, the lead actor, the setting of NK vs SK, and the overall quality of Korean dramas has me excited about this one. Production is starting soon, so we will see this sometime in 2027.

quote:

---

Eric Schrier, Disney’s head of international local originals, admits he was “a little hesitant” when he first heard the pitch to remake the hit FX series The Americans as The Koreans — a big-budget, local-language reimagining starring Lee Byung-hun and Han Ji-min as a pair of North Korean spies masquerading as a happily married couple in 1990s South Korea.

“I was the guy who developed The Americans,” says Schrier, who, before taking the top global TV job at Disney, served as president of FX Entertainment. “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.”

---

quote:

---

Set during the wave of democratization and cultural modernization that swept across South Korea in the early 1990s, The Koreans will follow a middle-class family hiding a parallel treasonous secret. While seemingly ordinary citizens in the eyes of their friends, neighbors and even their children, both parents — played by Lee Byung-hun and Han Ji-min — are actually elite North Korean spies working to bring down the South from within. Highlighting the stark differences between the two formerly united countries, the series will again follow the spies as they wrestle with conflicting feelings of patriotism, loyalty, identity and love, while a ruthless Korean counterintelligence agent draws ever closer to discovering their identities.

---

THR Article