The Netflix Korean Dramas to Look Out For in 2025

Nine years after launching in South Korea, Netflix has proven that Korean content overcame what Parasite director Bong Joon-ho once called the subtitle “barrier.” 

One just needs to look at the sophomore season of fan-favorite Squid Game, released over the winter holidays in 2024: In just weeks, it became the second most watched non-English season of all time, with audiences watching for over 1.24 billion hours, falling behind only to its own first season, which had been viewed for 2.2 billion hours. (For reference, the streaming giant has about 301 million paid subscribers.)

The popularity of Korean dramas has also risen among Netflix’s competitors like Disney+, Apple TV+, and Hulu. But with its billion-dollar investment in Korean productions, Netflix is likely to continue its domination in 2025 with a highly anticipated conclusion to Squid Game in the mid-year, alongside a bevy of other titles featuring some of the Hallyu wave’s most bankable stars.

Here are the K-dramas to look forward to on Netflix in 2025:

Parasite’s Choi Woo-shik and Daily Dose of Sunshine’s Park Bo-young join forces in a Valentines’ Day romance for cineastes. Choi plays Ko Gyeom, a movie buff turned critic, who crosses paths with Park’s Kim Mu-bee, a director who enters the film industry out of a love-hate relationship with her father, after years apart. Helming the production is director Oh Choong-hwan, who has brought shows like Hotel de Luna (2019) and Start-Up (2020). Melo Movie will stream on Netflix on Feb. 14.

South Korea’s “little sister” IU (Hotel de Luna) and Park Bo-gum (Reply 1988, Record of Youth) team up in this slice-of-life series. IU plays the younger version of Ae-sun, a bold “remarkable rebel,” while Park plays Gwan-sik, nicknamed “unyielding iron”—in a show that chronicles their relationship over the course of four seasons in 1950s Jeju Island, a paradise known for its sprawling tangerine farms. When Life Gives You Tangerines airs on March 7.

This brutal, action-packed series returns with a second season, focused once again on one of the pressing social woes in South Korea: bullying. Based on the Naver webtoon of the same name by Seopass, Weak Hero Class 2 picks up where the first season left off in 2022—Yeon Si-eun (Park Ji-hoon, returning from Season 1) has been transferred to a new school after exacting violence on his enemies in the previous one. Among the new faces are Ryeo-un (Twinkling Watermelon), Choi Min-yeong (XO, Kitty) and Lee Min-jae (Uprising). Weak Hero Class 2 is set for a second quarter release.

The epic finale of globally-celebrated survival series Squid Game will arrive mid-year. The second season ended with (spoiler alert) Gi-hun (Lee Jung-jae) in despair following a failed rebellion against the game and its architect, a failed attempt to locate the games, and the death of his friend. A post-credits scene in the second season promises even higher stakes in the follow-up—teasing a second giant doll, Cheol-su, joining the characteristic Young-hee doll in the deadly Red Light, Green Light game. Creator and director Hwang Dong-hyuk told Deadline that the final season will be a “crazy, crazy, crazy” one. Squid Game 3 will be released June 27.  

Chungmuro, an avenue in Seoul, was the historic “cradle” of the South Korean film industry from the 1960s until the 1990s, and this fictional comedy explores the struggles of those trying to make it big at the height of the Hollywood-like neighborhood’s glory. The series goes behind the scenes of the making of the 1982 erotic box-office hit Madame Aema. Lee Ha-nee (The Fiery Priest, Phantom) plays Chungmuro A-lister Jeong Hee-ran, who loses the lead role in the film after a squabble with the creator, and is eventually replaced by aspiring Shin Ju-ae, played by up-and-coming actor Bang Hyo-rin. Aema is set for a third quarter release.

Kim Eun-sook, the writer behind the 2022 revenge drama The Glory, is no stranger to romance, having penned local hit shows like Lovers in Paris and Descendants of the Sun. This year, she is the screenwriter behind a light-hearted fantasy rom-com that brings together Kim Woo-bin (Black Knight, The Heirs) and Suzy (Doona!) years after their last project, Uncontrollably Fond, in 2016. Kim plays the Genie, while Suzy plays Ka-young, his new master, and the two characters go through the familiar three wishes rule. Genie, Make a Wish is expected to be out in the fourth quarter of 2025.

Actor Kim Seon-ho, whose popularity skyrocketed after a supporting role in 2020 tvN drama Start-Up, is back after his last project with Netflix, Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha. Kim plays a polyglot who eventually works—and forms a romance—with a global celebrity, played by Go Youn-jung (Alchemy of Souls Part 2, Moving). Can This Love Be Translated? is slated for a release in the last quarter of the year.