The Korean political thriller "Made in Korea" returns for a six-episode second season on Hulu and Disney+ from 9 September, continuing the KRW70 billion ($51 million) two-season production that ranks among the most expensive K-dramas made. The new season jumps forward nine years from Season 1's 1970s setting to depict the chaos of 1979, including a presidential assassination and military coups, while sharpening the rift between brothers Baek Ki-tae and Baek Ki-hyun, played by Hyun Bin and Woo Do-hwan, as their diverging paths in power pit them against each other.

Director Woo Min-ho, who previously covered related events in his 2020 film "The Man Standing Next", says the nine-year time jump reflects how dramatically the characters have changed, with Ki-tae now second-in-command at the Korean Central Intelligence Agency and his once-timid brother risen through military ranks. Jung Woo-sung's prosecutor character Jang Geon-young is teased to return seeking revenge, while Woo notes the tighter six-episode format makes Season 2 feel like one continuous film rather than the episodic structure of Season 1. The shift also mirrors a broader trend among Korean streamers, including Disney+, Netflix and others, moving away from traditional 16-episode series towards shorter, film-director-led prestige productions; a spin-off, "The Koreans", set in the 1990s, is already in the works for next year.