Netflix is bringing the zombies back.
Above is the first trailer for Zombieverse, the streamer’s upcoming survival series set in the South Korean capital Seoul. Netflix has set a release date on August 8.
The 47-second trailer shows carnage in downtown Seoul, as contestants seek to escape flesh-eating foes. A newsreader voice over talks of “multiple patients” coming down with an “unknown infection” and showing “unusual, violent symptoms” as scenes of zombies attacking people in the neon streets unfold. Scenes in shops, theme parks and car parks also flash up.
“We’re going to die. We’ll all be killed,” says one as the drama ramps up.
The ambitious show uses all the tropes and format beats of zombie dramas such as The Walking Dead, Kingdom and All of Us Are Dead, but places them into a reality TV setting. Korean papers are reporting the art team behind All of Us Are Dead and the choreographers from Kingdom are attached to the series, details of which have been scant since the show was announced last year.
The format will force a group of ‘survivors’ who have to work together to find food, water, transport and shelter. They are given tasks each day to ensure survival but if any one is ‘bitten’, they exit the game. Producers are Park Jin-kyung, who made popular Korean show My Little Television for MBC, and Moon Sang-don, who made travel series Hey! First Time in Korea?.
Contestants include actor Lee Si-young, who appeared in thriller series Sweet Home, based on the Naver webtoon of the same name. Comedian Park Na-rae, rapper DinDin, ex-Korean baseball pitcher Yoo Hee-kwan, Kim Jin-young of “Single’s Inferno 2 and other are among the survivalists.
Previous attempts to bring zombie survival together with reality TV include BBC Three series I Survived a Zombie Apocalypse, which ran in the UK in 2015.