Disney’s Korean Reimagining of The Americans Is the Right Kind of Series Revival

Reboots, revivals, and reimaginings are more popular than ever in television right now, from the forthcoming series adaptation of the Harry Potter franchise, to the Firefly animated sequel, and the failed Buffy the Vampire Slayer follow-up that Hulu canceled before it ever even made it out of the pilot stage. It makes sense then that someone somewhere was eager to try to remake The Americans, FX’s critically acclaimed series about undercover KGB spies living a regular American life in 1980s suburban D.C., even as they worked to bring down the U.S. government. The series racked up 18 Emmy nominations over the course of its run and a Lead Actor win for star Matthew Rhys. (Justice for Keri Russell’s unfairly snubbed performance, though!) But the new take we’re getting isn’t one anyone likely expected.

Rather than attempt to copy the (very recent and very beloved) original, Disney+ is taking a different tack, greenlighting The Koreans, a big-budget, local language reimagining of The Americans that revolves around a pair of North Korean spies masquerading as a happily married couple in 1990s South Korea. Like Phillip and Elizabeth Jennings before them, this couple will appear to be ordinary citizens to their neighbors and friends, all while secretly working to destabilize the South from within. As remake ideas go, it’s brilliant! Don’t believe me? Apparently, Russell and Rhys have already given their blessing to the project.

Thematically, The Koreans will undoubtedly deal with many of the same issues that its predecessor did: Family, loyalty, identity, patriotism, and bonds to a homeland you aren’t necessarily part of anymore. But by shifting the series to the 1990s and changing its setting to the more volatile Korean peninsula,  just as a wave of democratization and cultural modernization was unfolding in the South, the various political perspectives and pressures this show will tackle will be completely different.  (And will probably feel especially new for the English-speaking audience that Disney is obviously hoping will also tune in.)

But in a world where far too many remakes are just reskinned and/or repurposed versions of the thing that came before, it’s incredibly refreshing to see a creator who plans to use a familiar concept to say something entirely new. Obviously, the conflict between North and South Korea, which are immediate neighbors and home to citizens with family and loyalties on both sides of the Korean Military Demarcation Line, is going to produce a very different take on this particular premise than the steadily escalating Cold War antagonism between the United States and Russia. But that’s precisely what makes this kind of reimagining so interesting; we already know it’s not going to simply recreate what we’ve seen before. 

The Koreans will star Squid Game’s Lee Byung-hun and Heavenly‘s Han Ji-min and stream on Hulu in the U.S. and Disney+ internationally.