Kingdom

Kingdom is a South Korean historical horror television series set in the Joseon dynasty and released by Netflix. Created by screenwriter Kim Eun-hee, it adapts her webtoon The Kingdom of the Gods, illustrated by Yang Kyung-il. The story begins after King Lee Seung-hui falls gravely ill and rumors of his death spread through the court. His young son, Crown Prince Lee Chang, is barred from seeing him by the powerful Haewon Cho clan, led by Chief State Councillor Cho Hak-ju and his daughter, Queen Consort Cho.

Chang discovers that a physician, Lee Seung-hui, used a resurrection plant to revive the king. The treatment transforms the dead into ravenous creatures that attack the living, and the infection races beyond the palace into the provinces. Accompanied by his bodyguard Moo-young and the former royal physician's assistant Seo-bi, Chang investigates the epidemic. He also encounters Yeong-sin, a mysterious hunter, and Cho Beom-pal, a magistrate from the Cho clan. The series combines court succession conflict with a zombie outbreak, using the famine, class divisions, and political violence of its Joseon-era setting as central plot pressures, not merely decorative background.

Ju Ji-hoon plays Lee Chang, while Ryu Seung-ryong portrays Cho Hak-ju and Bae Doona plays Seo-bi. Kim Sang-ho appears as Moo-young, Kim Sung-kyu as Yeong-sin, and Jeon Seok-ho as Cho Beom-pal. The first season premiered on January 25, 2019, with six episodes. Its second six-episode season arrived on March 13, 2020. Kim Seong-hun directed the first season and returned to direct its opening episode; Park In-je directed the remaining episodes of season two. Kim Eun-hee wrote the series and continued the narrative in the feature-length special Kingdom: Ashin of the North, released in July 2021 on Netflix worldwide.

The special stars Jun Ji-hyun as Ashin, a woman from a northern border community whose past connects to the resurrection plant. It also features Park Byung-eun reprising his role as Min Chi-rok, the commander introduced in the second season. Kingdom's first season was Netflix's first original Korean series, a landmark in the service's expansion of Korean productions. The drama was filmed in South Korea and uses elaborate period costumes, palaces, villages, and rural landscapes to stage its outbreaks. Its finale leaves Chang alive after the struggle over the throne, while introducing a new threat connected to the plant in the north.