Hyun Bin as Baek Kitae in Disney+/Hulu’s ‘Made in Korea’ Season 2
Courtesy of Disney+/Hulu
When the period crime thriller Made in Korea debuted on Disney+ and Hulu in December 2025, it became the platform’s most-watched Korean original title globally that year. Even before its premiere, Disney+ had already renewed the series for a second season. Now the highly anticipated Made in Korea Season 2 has arrived, with more intense action and suspense as the stakes rise even higher.
Directed by Woo Min-ho (Inside Men, Harbin) and written by Park Eun-gyo (The Silent Sea, The Koreans) and Park Joon-suk (A Normal Family), Made in Korea stars Hyun Bin (Crash Landing on You, Harbin) as Baek Kitae, a high-ranking agent at the Korean Central Intelligence Agency (KCIA) who leads a double life as a drug smuggler. Jung Woo-sung (12.12: The Day; The Good, the Bad, the Weird) stars as righteous prosecutor Jang Geonyoung, who goes to great lengths to try to stop Kitae, while Woo Do-hwan (Mr. Plankton, Bloodhounds) plays Kitae’s younger brother Baek Kihyun, a top graduate of the Korea Military Academy eager to emerge from his brother’s shadow and carve his own path to power.
Poster for ‘Made in Korea’ Season 2
Courtesy of Disney+/Hulu
Warning: Some spoilers ahead for ‘Made in Korea’ seasons 1 and 2!
Made in Korea Season 1 saw Geonyoung and Kitae locked in an intricate game of cat and mouse, with Kitae ultimately turning the tables on his adversary. In Season 2, Kitae’s ambitions reach new heights as he continues his relentless pursuit of wealth and power—with seemingly no one able to stop him.
At a recent press conference, Director Woo revealed that while each episode of the first season featured a different story and “almost felt like a standalone film,” Season 2’s six episodes “feel like parts of one continuous movie.” As a result, he shared that viewers will likely find the new season’s plot tighter and faster-paced.
Below, he, Hyun Bin and Woo Do-hwan share what else viewers should know about Made in Korea Season 2.
Why ‘Made in Korea’ Season 2 is set nine years after Season 1
Made in Korea Season 2 picks up in 1979, nine years after the events of Season 1.
“Nine years seemed like an appropriate number of years, and it’s a long period of time that can change people significantly,” Director Woo said. “1979 was also one of the most chaotic and tumultuous times in modern Korean history, so I wanted to place the characters from Season 1, as well as new characters, against the backdrop of 1979.”
Season 2’s main story begins on October 26, 1979—the day President Park Chung-hee was assassinated by the then-director of the KCIA—and ends just before December 12, 1979, when Major General Chun Doo-hwan staged an insurrection that allowed him to seize control of the military and eventually paved the way for his presidency. (For a dramatized version of what happened on that fateful day, Director Woo recommended that audiences watch 12.12: The Day, a film that was produced by the same company behind Made in Korea, Hive Media Corp.)
“In actual history, after the director of the KCIA assassinated the president, power became concentrated in the Joint Investigation Headquarters,” Director Woo said. “But Made in Korea Season 2 began with the question: Would the KCIA really have simply sat there and allowed that to happen? Even if it wasn’t recorded in history, I imagined that the KCIA wouldn’t have just done nothing. Perhaps the KCIA would’ve launched a counterattack, and the leader of that counterattack would be Baek Kitae.”
“That’s where this story began,” he added.
Understanding the historical context of ‘Made in Korea’ Season 2
Unlike 12.12: The Day or The Man Standing Next (another film directed by Woo), Made in Korea approaches the political turmoil of 1979 from a different vantage point.
While those films are told from the perspectives of individuals deeply involved in the historical events themselves, Woo said Made in Korea centers on “people on the periphery who were not directly involved.”
“So even though you may be looking at the same historical events, I think they’ll appear quite different,” he said.
Because both seasons of Made in Korea were inspired by actual events in modern Korean history, accurately capturing the atmosphere of 1970s South Korea was extremely important to the production. That meant getting all the details of that era right—including the prevalence of smoking in public places.
“Cigarettes are actually a very important prop,” Hyun Bin told Forbes. “There’s a certain power that the prop represents. It’s a device that comprehensively shows the acting and the feelings of the character when they’re smoking, and also what it was like in Korea back then when you could literally smoke anywhere, unlike today.”
(Thankfully, Hyun Bin and Woo Do-hwan explained that the cigarettes used in the series’ numerous smoking scenes were nicotine-free.)
Baek Kitae (Hyun Bin) continues his relentless pursuit of power and wealth in ‘Made in Korea’ Season 2.
Courtesy of Disney+/Hulu
How Kitae’s and Kihyun’s relationship changes in ‘Made in Korea’ Season 2
The nine-year time jump between seasons 1 and 2 has also transformed many of the show’s characters—especially Kihyun.
“Kihyun is more mature than he was in Season 1,” Woo Do-hwan said. “But the stronger he becomes, the conflict between him and his brother also becomes more intense.”
Much of Made in Korea’s second season explores the changing dynamic between Kihyun and his older brother as the two gradually realize, as Woo puts it, that “they’re each going in a different direction.”
“Kihyun is a younger brother who always has a desire to free himself from his older brother’s ways and the pressure he puts on him,” Hyun Bin said. “As his desire to live his life on his own terms becomes more apparent in Season 2, he begins to clash with Kitae more often. The rift deepens, yet because they have such a tight family bond, there are certain emotions that they can’t get rid of.”
That growing rift between the brothers also ties into one of the season’s central themes: family.
Why family is a core theme in ‘Made in Korea’ Season 2
Made in Korea Season 2 delves more deeply into the Baek family and the evolving relationships among siblings Kitae, Kihyun and Soyoung. For both Kitae and Kihyun, Hyun Bin and Woo Do-hwan said, family remains one of the most important factors shaping their decisions.
For Kitae in particular, it’s the driving force behind his ruthless quest for power.
“All of Kitae’s desires and lust for power originate from the belief that he must protect himself and his family,” Hyun Bin said.
Director Woo felt that the first season didn’t explore Kitae’s family deeply enough, so in Season 2, he “really wanted to show more of this family.”
“I spent a lot of time thinking about what a family from that era might have been like, and how the relationships and emotions within this family might have changed after nine years,” he said. “I think the emotions have become much more intense, and there are emotions that we didn’t see in Season 1. They love one another because they’re family, but they also feel hurt and resentful towards one another. Family relationships are love-hate relationships, after all, so I wanted to express that sense of both love and resentment.”
‘Made in Korea’ Season 2 premiered on Disney+ and Hulu on September 9th and will release two new episodes every Wednesday through September 23rd.
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