Disney+ is doing a remake of the greatest spy thriller of all time, and it has the chance to make it better. The genre has always been popular, hence the sheer number of takes on it. While the big screen has the Mission: Impossible, Kingsman, and of course, the James Bond franchise, the small screen has also produced countless iconic shows in the sandbox, such as Showtime’s Homeland, Fox’s 24, and ABC’s Alias. Amid all of these great series, there’s one that is widely regarded as the best.
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Premiering in 2013, FX’s The Americans introduced Keri Russell and Matthew Rhys as Elizabeth and Phillip Jennings — two Soviet KGB intelligence officers posing as an American married couple living in Falls Church in the Washington, D.C. area. Aside from using their spy skills to gather intel, their story also involves the extra complication of raising their American-born children. Created by Joe Weisberg for the network, the show ran for six seasons, wrapping up in 2018. Inspired by The Americans‘ success, it is now getting a remake on Disney+
The Americans Is Getting A Korean Disney+ Remake
Throughout its six-season run, The Americans received widespread acclaim from critics. Its Rotten Tomatoes scores range from 88% to 100%, highlighting how it maintained the quality of its storytelling. Beyond that, The Americans also got two Peabody Awards, several Primetime Emmys, and a Golden Globe. Now, Disney+ aims to replicate its success with a big-budget Korean remake of the series starring Lee Byung-hun (Squid Game, No Other Choice) and Han Ji-min (Miss Baek).
The Americans‘ Korean remake on Disney+ will follow Lee and Han as North Korean spies who have embedded themselves in South Korea in the 1990s. Like Rhys and Russell’s Jennings, the pair will play the part of a normal happily married couple, with kids, who will also make their mission to bring down the South from within more complicated than it already is. Park Eun-kyo (co-writer of Bong Joon-ho’s Mother, Disney+ series Made in Korea) is writing and adapting the show, with The Glory‘s Ahn Gil-ho helming every episode.
How A Korean-Based The Americans Remake Can Be Better Than The Original
Overall, The Americans is dubbed one of the best TV shows of all time, so there’s high pressure for the Korean adaptation to be good. While remakes typically pale in comparison to their predecessors, The Koreans actually has a good chance to not just keep up with the quality of the original, but even surpass it. For starters, while the show is a period piece set in the 1990s, the division between South and North Korea continues, which would give it a sense of relevancy despite being set a few decades prior.
On top of that, it could also touch on the ongoing grief of families who were separated after the Koreas split in the ’50s, depending on how Disney+ approaches the subject. This could give the show a broader and more human perspective, as Lee and Han’s characters could encounter normal people whose lives were torn apart because of the division of the peninsula.
Secondly, while everyone involved in The Koreans thus far sounds perfect for the project, Lee as its male lead star holds a lot of potential, primarily because of his previous work in the show IRIS. The 2009 KBS series went on to become one of the most critically and commercially successful series of the year. In the series, Lee played a South Korean Special Forces betrayed by his country and ended up working with the North Koreans. It sounds like the perfect teaser to what people can expect from him in The Americans‘ upcoming Korean remake.
The Americans is available to stream on Hulu.
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