We’re at the point now where the zombie genre seems a bit played out. After the recent 20th season of “The Walking Dead” (Wait, they’re only on Season 9? Wow.) and the flood of zombie films of the last decade, there just doesn’t seem to be any sort of innovation in the genre. However, with “Kingdom,” Netflix hopes to change that.
In the new trailer for “Kingdom,” we see that the zombie genre has been transported to ancient Korea, where a member of royalty has taken to burying his enemies in the lake near his home. The lake is crawling with dead bodies being held down by weights. That is, until they all come to life and overrun the city. This leads to an investigation of what exactly is going on and how they may stop this new plague from sweeping the Kingdom.
“Kingdom” stars Ju Ji-hoon, Bae Doona, Ryu Seung-ryong, Kim Sang-ho, Heo Joon-ho, Jeon Seok-ho, and Chu Hun-yub. The first season has yet to premiere on the streaming service, but it has already been picked up for a planned second season, which will wrap up the short series. The second season is set to begin production in February 2019.
With Netflix’s continued expansion in the global marketplace, it’s no surprise that they’re looking to make more Korean series, and in doing so, it appears that the streaming service might have come up with a fresh take on a genre we had all but written off. We’ll just have to wait until next month to see how successful the studio is.
“Kingdom” launches globally on Netflix on January 25, 2019.
Here’s the synopsis:
In a kingdom defeated by corruption and famine, a mysterious plague spreads to turn the infected into monsters. The crown prince, framed for treason and desperate to save his people, sets out on a journey to unveil what evil lurks in the dark. Kingdom coming to Netflix worldwide January 25.