How 'Hellbound' season 2 hid its conspicuous cast change

The second season of Netflix's 'Hellbound' explores themes of resurrection and chaos, introducing new characters while maintaining suspense. Director Yeon Sang-ho hints at future expansions and a potential third season.

Director Yeon Sang-ho of the second season of Netflix horror series ″Hellbound″ [NETFLIX]

When actor Yoo Ah-in was pulled from Netflix's second season of “Hellbound,” the entire team wondered how the production would go on.

The actor, embroiled in a drug scandal for which he would later be sentenced, had been a central figure in the hit Netflix series, which debuted at No. 1 on the streaming service’s list of most-viewed TV shows upon its release in November 2021. His performance in the opening scene of the show's first season had received widespread acclaim.

While Kim Sung-cheol, brought on to take over the lead role of cult leader Jung Jin-su, was an experienced performer, director Yeon Sang-ho felt it was important not to make the cast change too abrupt. The solution: silhouettes.

The season, which arrived on Netflix on Oct. 25, depicts the chaotic entanglement of three religious factions — the New Truth, the Arrowheads and Sodo leader Min Hye-jin — after the sudden resurrections of Jin-su, the New Truth's formerly condemned founder, and Park Jung-ja, a single mother of two children. The previous season, which aired in 2021, left off with Jin-su's disappearance and Jung-ja's damnation.

The first episode opens with a recap of Jin-su’s death, remade with Kim Sung-cheol in the role, before he is resurrected.

Still from the second season of Netflix's horror series ″Hellbound″ [NETFLIX]

“There were plans to show the audience things gradually,” director Yeon said to reporters in Jongno District, central Seoul, on Tuesday. “Instead of revealing everything at once, we planned to start with silhouettes. Because when you see the silhouettes, there isn’t much difference.”

Performance-wise, however, Yeon largely trusted Kim to create the character of Jin-su, noting that he “interfered” only with the character's costumes and hairstyle. He was more focused on the season's dark, chaotic world in which the resurrected rise from hell. That sense of fear and unpredictability, rather than a cast change, is what he hopes viewers will take away from the season.

People fear hell, the director believes, because they don't know what they might find there.

"Hell is hell when unpredictability is on its base,” Yeon, who helmed and cowrote both seasons of the show, as well as its original webtoon, with cowriter Choi Gyu-seok, said. “It’s no longer truly hell if it can be defined.”

Still from the second season of Netflix's horror series ″Hellbound″ [NETFLIX]

“In this season, countless people desperately struggle to define hell in order to escape from suffering,” he said. “However, at the end of all those countless struggles, there lies yet another overwhelming and unpredictable force that renders them meaningless.” The sentiment reflects a key phrase the director had in mind as he wrote the six episodes — “Brilliant Despair.”

The season's biggest unknown: What causes the two resurrections that kick it off? Yeon won't say — the “sense of unease” that viewers gain from not knowing its source is exactly what he's going for. The second season he says, “can be described as cosmic horror, amplifying human anxiety and providing a sense of catharsis when confronted with an incomprehensible vastness beyond human control. However, once the requirements for resurrection are known, that feeling of unease inevitably fades.”

He does hint, however, that Jin-su and Jung-ja may not be the only characters to come back from the dead. “Countless people,” the director said, “may one day be resurrected, or perhaps they already have. It's just that they went unnoticed.”

Still from the second season of Netflix's horror series ″Hellbound″ [NETFLIX]

Still from the second season of Netflix's horror series ″Hellbound″ [NETFLIX]

“The concept of resurrection has a broad sense of time,” the director explained. “Since it's something that happens from a divine perspective, it could mean they might be resurrected a hundred years later, or they could've been resurrected a hundred years ago.”

The new season’s lineup includes fresh faces like Kim Sung-cheol, Im Sung-jae, Moon So-ri, and Moon Geun-young alongside returning season one cast members Kim Shin-rock and Kim Hyun-joo — whose character, Hye-jin, Yeon highlighted as the one most emblematic of his “Brilliant Despair” mantra.

Director Yeon is interested in making a third season of the series, albeit with a new perspective from the previous ones.

“If I have the opportunity to work on a new season, I’m really curious about how Hye-jin’s story would unfold,” he said. “I have this desire to explore how her story would differ from the ones told by previous characters.”

Director Yeon Sang-ho of the second season of Netflix horror series ″Hellbound″ [NETFLIX]

In the meantime, however, the director is focused on a different medium: He's hard at work on an anthology novel in collaboration with other short story authors. The collection, which features his co-writers' interpretations of hell, “is connected to the expansion of this series,” the director said.

In other words, fans shouldn't worry. “There are plans to expand further the world of 'Hellbound,’” the director assured.

BY KIM JI-YE [kim.jiye@joongang.co.kr]