Disney+ Remakes FX’s Espionage Thriller “The Americans” As “The Koreans”

One of the greatest spy thrillers of all time is getting a Disney+ remake. In 2013, The Americans debuted on FX and introduced viewers to Elizabeth (Keri Russell) and Philip Jennings (Matthew Rhys), a Falls Church couple living in the suburbs of Washington D.C. who are secretly covert KGB intelligence officers.

The Americans is generally ranked amongst the best espionage thriller shows ever and often makes its way into the best TV shows of all time lists. The series wrapped in 2018, and only eight years later, we get an announcement that the series is being remade for a new audience, and Disney seems to have high hopes for it.

The Americans Is Getting A Korean Remake On Disney+

The Americans is coming to Disney+ but not as you might expect. Disney’s head of international local originals, Eric Schrier, who also helped develop The Americans for FX, announced that Disney+ would be remaking The Americans as The Koreans, an international version of the series starring Lee Byung-hun and Han Ji-min (via THR).

Byung-hun and Ji-min will play a pair of North Korean spies pretending to be a happily married couple in 1990s South Korea. The Koreans is set during a tumultuous time in North and South Korea, with modernization and democratization sweeping South Korea, and North Korea tightening its grip on its country.

Disney+ Has High Hopes For Its Remake Of The Americans

Disney+ has high hopes for this new series, as suggested by the alleged “big budget” of the project. The series is Disney’s first local-language adaptations of one of its scripted series, and it sounds like the idea came from a legitimate, organic idea rather than a corporate mandate hoping to exploit existing IP.

As The Americans is particularly close to Schrier’s heart, he wasn’t exactly looking to remake the series. However, the premise won him over, and because of Disney’s content relationship with Korea, the idea had the perfect timing. The cast of the series also signals Schrier and Disney are taking the remake seriously.

Han Ji-min and Lee Hee-joon are notable Korean stars, but it’s the co-lead performance by Lee Byung-hun that really has people excited. A major star in his homeland, Byung-hun has become an international star thanks in large part to his performance as the Front Man in Squid Game and Yoo Man-soo in No Other Choice.

What Made The Americans So Good

It will require more than a big budget and big names if The Koreans hopes to find the same cultural and critical success as The Americans, however. The Americans was never afraid to take its time with its storytelling, carefully laying out plots and character motivations before moving things forward just a little.

The Americans is a spy thriller, and it has plenty of fun within the genre, but the real beating heart of the show is the family drama and psychological portrait of people who spend their whole lives lying. It will take strong writing, but those are both ideas that a split Korean peninsula should be an equally perfect setting for.