Disney+ sets big-budget Korean remake of ‘The Americans’ — check out cast, setting and plot details
Sometimes, even the people who helped build a hit show from the ground up are not immediately sold on seeing it reborn somewhere else, in another language, with a whole new cultural lens. That was pretty much the mood when Eric Schrier first heard about the idea of reworking ‘The Americans’ into a Korean-set drama. Schrier, who now oversees international original content at Disney, had a personal connection to the original spy drama that ran on FX. He had been closely involved with it during his earlier role at the network, working alongside creators Joe Weisberg and Joel Fields. As quoted by The Hollywood Reporter, “I wasn’t so sure about this idea, because it’s all very near and dear to my heart,” Schrier admitted.
However, what started as skepticism slowly shifted into curiosity, and then, eventually, into cautious enthusiasm. That’s because the concept was not just a copy-and-paste job with different actors and subtitles, but rather a complete rethinking of the premise, right in the middle of a country that still lives with a very real divide. The new series, titled ‘The Koreans,’ moves the story away from Cold War America and drops it into 1990s South Korea, a time when the country was going through rapid changes. Instead of Soviet spies pretending to be suburban Americans, the show follows a seemingly average married couple who are actually North Korean operatives embedded in the South. They are living double lives while raising a family that has no clue what’s really going on behind closed doors.
The lead roles are set to be played by Lee Byung-hun and Han Ji-min. Their characters are not just spies ticking off assignments; they are parents, partners, and individuals caught between duty and personal emotion. And then there’s the added tension of a counterintelligence officer closing in, piece by piece, as the couple tries to keep their cover intact. The original ‘The Americans’ built its reputation over six seasons by bringing espionage into domestic life. It starred Keri Russell and Matthew Rhys as a married pair living undercover in Washington, D.C., during the Reagan years. What ultimately convinced Schrier was not some corporate push to recycle an old hit, but the genuine excitement coming from the Korean creative team.
He explained, “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. 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.” The script is by Park Eun-kyo, while directing duties are handled by Ahn Gil-ho. And unlike many American productions that rotate directors and rely on a full writers’ room, this series will follow a more traditional Korean production model, with a single writer and director guiding the entire season. Interestingly, another name joining the cast is Lee Hee-joon, though details about his role are still being kept quiet.
