While 2025 was a pretty good year for Korean dramas, 2026 has the potential to be even better, bringing the return of some beloved series, actors, and creators. Netflix’s youth zombie drama All of Us Are Dead might make its much-anticipated return in 2026, while new seasons of Yumi’s Cells, A Shop For Killers, and Made in Korea are more certain. Lovely Runner acting duo Byeon Woo-seok and Kim Hye-yoon have separate series set to premiere in the next year, as do When Life Gives You Tangerines stars IU and Kim Seon-ho. Behind the scenes, Alchemy of Souls scribes the Hong sisters are back with an epic romance drama and Jeongnyeon: A Star is Born director Jung Ji-in is teaming up with Vincenzo writer Park Jae-bum for a dance team period spy thriller.
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Without further ado, here are some of the K-dramas we’re most looking forward to in 2026…
Can This Love Be Translated? (Netflix)
Release date (binge): Jan. 16th
This globetrotting romance drama from the Hong sisters was on our Most Anticipated 2025 K-Dramas list, only to be pushed to 2026. The Netflix series stars Hometown Cha Cha Cha’s Kim Seon-ho as Joo Ho-jin, a polyglot interpreter who is better with foreign languages than he is with the language of love. When he meets actress Cha Mu-hee (Resident Playbook’s Go Youn-jung), the careful boundaries of his contented life are challenged. Filmed across three continents, starring two of Korean TV’s most charismatic actors, and crafted by a legendary pair of K-drama writers, Can This Love Be Translated? is poised to be one of the year’s most romantic journeys.
No Tail To Tell (Netflix)
Release date (weekly): Jan. 16th
Lovely Runner was the best K-drama of 2024, in no small part due to the performance of Kim Hye-yoon as time-jumping protagonist Im Sol. In 2026, Kim is returning to K-drama screens as a gumiho in No Tail to Tell. Gumihos are mythical, fox-like creatures out of Korean folklore known for their nine tails, deceptive behavior, and magical powers. They have become a popular trope in Korean drama, including in My Girlfriend is a Gumiho, My Roommate is a Gumiho, and Tale of the Nine-Tailed. In No Tail to Tell, Kim plays Eun-ho, a gumiho who—unlike many we’ve seen on screen—has no desire to become human, which would mean losing her eternal youth. When an accident involving narcissistic professional soccer player Kang Si-yeol (All of Us Are Dead’s Lomon) turns her human, they both must learn to live with the consequences.
Boyfriend on Demand (Netflix)
Release date (binge): February
In this romantic drama, Blackpink’s Jisoo stars as Seo Mi-rae, an exhausted webtoon producer who has no time for romance. Enter a subscription-based virtual dating service, which allows Mi-rae the opportunity to go on virtual dates with unrealistically perfect boyfriends, reawakening her desire for romance. Café Minamdang’s Seo In-guk co-stars as Park Kyeong-nam, Mi-rae’s colleague and a rival webtoon producer who begins to stir her heart in the real world. With a uniquely modern premise and No Gain, No Love director Kim Jung-shik behind the camera, Boyfriend On Demand is one to watch out for.
Yumi’s Cells Season 3 (TBA)
An adaptation of the popular webtoon about a woman and the cells who run her, Yumi’s Cells is like a delightful romance version of animated kids franchise Inside Out. Kim Go-eun (The Price of Confession) returns as Yumi, an office worker turned novelist looking for love. The arrival of Sin Sun-rok (The Tale of Lady Ok’s Kim Jae-won), a seemingly cold publishing director, into Yumi’s life could change everything. The third season of Yumi’s Cells is expected to premiere in April.
Perfect Crown (Hulu/Disney+)
In an alternate version of Korea ruled by a constitutional monarchy, Lovely Runner breakout Byeon Woo-seok stars as melancholic modern-day prince Yi An. When the prince enters a contract marriage with chaebol heiress Seong Hui-ju (When Life Gives You Tangerine’s IU), the two find they have more in common than they suspected. Byeon and IU are coming off of two of K-drama’s biggest recent hits, and fans are excited to see what chemistry the two might have on screen together. Perfect Crown, which appears to be an interesting combination of historical and modern K-drama tropes, is helmed by Park Joon-hwa, who previously directed Alchemy of Souls, What’s Wrong With Secretary Kim, and Because This is My First Life. Perfect Crown is expected to be released as a weekly watch starting in April.
The Wonderfools (Netflix)
Extraordinary Attorney Woo’s Park Eun-bin and True Beauty’s Cha Eun-woo star in this superpowered action comedy set at the turn of the millennium (more specifically, 1999). The K-drama is helmed by Extraordinary Attorney Woo director Yoo In-shik and follows a group of townies who unexpectedly develop superpowers and use them to fight villains as a potential doomsday—aka Jan. 1, 2000—approaches. The Wonderfools was originally based on Stan Lee’s The B-TEAM comic before being redeveloped into an original production. Many K-dramas are based on Korean webtoons, but it is extremely rare for a Korean TV series to have any sort of connection to an American comic. The Wonderfools is expected to be released as a binge watch in the first part of the year.
The Remarried Empress (Hulu/Disney)
Rumored to be the most expensive Disney K-drama yet, royal epic The Remarried Empress filmed last summer across Europe. The series is an adaptation of a massively popular webtoon, and stars Hometown Cha Cha Cha’s Shin Min-a as Navier, an empress of the fictional Eastern Empire whose life takes an unexpected detour when her husband falls for a runaway slave and demands a divorce. Navier agrees to the imperial divorce on one condition: she be allowed to marry Prince Heinrey (Romance is a Bonus Book’s Lee Jong-suk), the Emperor of the Western Empire. The fantasy romance is expected to hit Disney+ in the second half of 2026.
Made in Korea Season 2 (Hulu/Disney+)
The first season of 1970s-set political thriller Made in Korea has been a hit on Disney+. Slick and stylish, the series stars Crash Landing on You’s Hyun Bin as Baek Ki-tae, a KCIA agent turned international drug smuggler. The first season follows Ki-tae’s efforts to secure his family’s legacy in a turbulent Korea through illegal ventures, and the attempts of Busan-based prosecutor Jang Gun-yeong (12:12: The Day’s Jung Woo-sung) to catch him. The second season of the taut, historically grounded thriller is expected to premiere sometime in the latter half of 2026.
Embers (TBA)
From her work on The Red Sleeve to Jeongnyeon: A Star is Born, Jung Ji-in has set herself apart as one of the most artistically competent directors working in Korean TV today. Though there isn’t much information available yet about her next drama, currently titled Embers, the “dynamic youth period drama” will reportedly follow a devoted National Security agent who goes undercover at a broadcasting station to ferret out spies. Once there, she begins to question her commitment to the mission. The series’ script comes from Park Jae-bum, who is known for his work on Vincenzo and Good Doctor.
Scandals (Netflix)
Son Ye-jin, who stole the show in 2019’s massively popular K-drama hit Crash Landing On You, stars as Lady Jo in this Joseon-era romance based on Untold Scandal, a 2003 Korean film based on Les Liaisons dangereuses. From Untold Scandal to Cruel Intentions to Dangerous Liaisons and last year’s The Seduction, the 1782 French novel has been a rich source for adaptation. For the 2026 K-drama currently titled Scandals, Son stars opposite fellow K-drama veteran Ji Chang-wook (The Manipulated), Nana (Mask Girl), and Chani (Under the Queen’s Umbrella) in this story of seduction and desire.
A Shop For Killers Season 2 (Hulu/Disney+)
In the first season of action thriller A Shop For Killers, Kim Hye-jun starred as Jeong Ji-an, a college student who must fight off a bevy of highly skilled assassins while trying to get to the bottom of her uncle’s death. The Kill Bill-like premise delivered on the action, while also telling a non-linear, moving story about the complicated connection between Hye-jun and Jin-man (Lee Dong-wook), the uncle who raised her after the mysterious murders of her parents. Kim and Lee are slated to return for the second season, which is confirmed for the second half of 2026.
All of Us Are Dead Season 2 (Netflix)
This is a hopeful entry on our list of 2026 K-dramas, as the specific return date for zombie drama All of Us Are Dead is far from confirmed. With production set to wrap up soon in Korea, the second season of All of Us Are Dead could be part of Netflix’s late 2026 slate—just in time for the holidays and almost five years after the first season’s January 2022 release. Returning cast members include Park Ji-hu as Nam On-jo, Yoon Chan-young as Lee Cheong-san, Cho Yi-Hyun as Choi Nam-ra, and Lomon as Lee Su-hyeok. Production began in July 2025 and is set to wrap up in February, suggesting that—whenever we do get this second season—it’s going to be epic.
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