‘Kingdom’ Trailer: Zombies Cut a Bloody Swath Through Medieval Korea

The last few trailers for Netflix’s buzzy zombie K-drama Kingdom have built up a grim, moody atmosphere fitting for the genre. But this is about zombies after all, and a it is a series coming from the country that produced the most high-octane zombie film from this century. So the newest Kingdom trailer amps up the action and bloodshed, depicting the outbreak of zombies that threaten to take over Joseon Korea.

Kingdom Trailer

Directed by Kim Seong-hun (A Hard Day) and written by Signal scribe Kim Eun-hee, Kingdom is set immediately after the death of a king in Korea’s Joseon period, which lasted between 1400 to 1900. Following the king’s death, a strange plague sweeps through the country, causing the king and dozens of others to rise from their graves and terrorize the country. The series follows the crown prince as he tries to stop the outbreak, and then simply survive it. The eight-episode series also stars Sense8′s Bae Doona, who has been slowly making her return to K-dramas with this series and last year’s excellent Stranger. Her character — supposedly a servant of some sort — takes a more prominent role in this trailer as she witnesses the zombie outbreak and helplessly tries to survive as the royal family abandons its dying subjects.

The eight-episode series follows up Netflix’s first Korean original series, Mr. Sunshine, a historical drama which also featured a star-studded cast and an acclaimed creative team. Both series are part of Netflix’s ongoing partnership with Asian production studios to bring U.S. audiences more K-dramas, and is part of the streaming giant’s global outreach for foreign-language content.

Here’s the official synopsis for Kingdom:

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 premieres on Netflix worldwide on January 25, 2019.