Director Yeon Sang-ho, best known for "Train to Busan," returns to the zombie genre with "Colony," a new film expanding his "Yeoniverse" that reimagines the infected as a collective intelligence capable of learning and adapting together. The film marks the long-awaited big-screen return of actress Gianna Jun (Jun Ji-hyun) after an 11-year absence, and matters as a fresh evolution of a genre Yeon effectively redefined with his earlier work, introducing zombies that are smarter and more coordinated than typical genre fare.

"Colony" follows Jun's character Kwon Se-jeong, an unemployed biotech professor trapped in a high-rise during a rapidly mutating viral outbreak, alongside co-stars Koo Kyo-hwan and Ji Chang-wook. The film premiered in North America as the opening film of the 25th New York Asian Film Festival and is set for US theatrical release on 28 August via Well Go USA. Yeon told Variety that choreographing the zombies' collective movement was the hardest challenge, and unlike "Train to Busan," where breakdancers shaped the infected's motion, this time modern dance troupes were used to emphasise their group-based, hive-like behaviour.