FX’s Acclaimed 6-Part Spy Thriller Series Getting Big Budget Disney+ Remake 8 Years After Series Finale

The original FX series starred Keri Russell and Matthew Rhys as Nadezhda and Mikhail, two KGB agents living under the guise of a married American couple, Elizabeth and Philip Jennings. They balance their real mission alongside raising their children, Paige (Holly Taylor) and Henry (Keidrich Sellati), both of whom were born in America. In 2018, The Americans ended after a six-season run.

Now, The Americans is being remade as The Koreans, starring Lee Byung-hun and Han Ji-min as North Korean spies posing as a married couple in 1990s South Korea. The remake will have one of the all-time largest budgets for a Disney+ Asian original series. Eric Schrier, president of Disney Television Studios, reveals that he was “a little hesitant” when hearing the pitch to reimagine The Americans. He was previously the president of FX Entertainment and explains that “I was the guy who developed The Americans. I’m still very close with Joe Weisberg and Joel Fields, the originals’ creators, so I wasn’t so sure about this idea, because it’s all very near and dear to my heart.” Eventually, he realized the potential to recontexutalize the original story. Read his additional comments below:

“The similarities of the two premises — North Koreans embedded in the South, instead of Russians spying in 1980s America — started to make sense to me. But it was really the passion of our Korean team that got me excited — and I could see that, because Korea is still divided, this could be a very culturally relevant story for the local audience, which is always the primary priority for our local original content.”

More to come…