Picture: Netflix
It has been a long wait for the survivors of Hyosan High. Netflix renewed All of Us Are Dead back in June 2022, just months after season 1 became one of the biggest Korean series the service had ever released, and then went almost completely quiet. Filming slipped from 2024 to 2025, the cast list changed, and the show was conspicuously missing from Netflix’s 2026 Korean slate.
The good news is that the picture is now a lot clearer. Season 2 has finished filming, Netflix has officially unveiled the returning and new cast, and the show is headlining the “What Next?” showcase at Netflix Korea’s 10th anniversary festival in Seoul in late October.
Before then, here’s everything we know about All of Us Are Dead season 2.
Season 2 Was Renewed Four Years Ago!
Netflix confirmed season 2 on day one of Geeked Week on June 6th, 2022, with Park Ji-hu, Yoon Chan-young, Cho Yi-hyun and Lomon delivering the news in a short video. Netflix Korea’s announcement opened with the question “Are they really all dead?” and noted the first season had entered the non-English top 10 in 91 countries.
The renewal was never in doubt. By Netflix’s own numbers at the time, season 1 racked up 361.02 million hours in its first 10 days and 560.78 million hours in its first 28 days, which still ranks it fourth on the old 28-day non-English series chart that Netflix retired in 2023. Under the current 91-day methodology, the show logged 679.3 million hours and 55.5 million views, enough to have sat in the all-time non-English top 10 for a spell before being pushed out by newer titles. You can see where it sits now in our most watched Netflix shows of all time rundown.
It has also kept pulling viewers in the years since. As we noted when filming wrapped, Netflix’s engagement reports show the series added another 480.5 million hours (roughly 39.2 million views) between 2023 and 2025.
Director Lee Jae-kyu had been teasing the direction of a second season even before it was greenlit. Speaking to Korean outlets including Insight in February 2022, he said: “If season 1 was about humans surviving, season 2 will be about zombies surviving.” He also confirmed the first season was written with a follow-up in mind.
The Long Road to Production
For a show renewed in 2022, the gap to cameras rolling was unusually long. Here’s the timeline as we understand it:
- 2022 to 2023: Casting conversations begin, with production initially pencilled in for 2024.
- May 2024: Korean outlet Star News exclusively reported that Netflix had pushed filming back by a full year to 2025, citing a desire for “a better production environment and higher quality.” At that point the report listed Roh Yoon-seo as a new addition to the cast.
- March 2025: Auditions for undisclosed roles were reportedly held, as we covered in our April 2025 update.
- May 2025: We reported that filming was set for summer 2025. Around the same time, Naver reported Roh Yoon-seo had withdrawn from the project because of a scheduling clash with The East Palace.
- June 2025: News1 broke the first wave of new cast names, which we covered in our new cast members report.
- July 23rd, 2025: Netflix Korea officially announced the cast alongside a script-reading photo confirming filming was underway, as reported by Newsis and others. Korean fan wikis put the first day of principal photography at July 10th, 2025, though that date has never been confirmed by Netflix.
- January 2026: Regional paper Kangwon Domin Ilbo reported that the Gangwon Provincial Office building in Chuncheon was selected as a filming location, with its rooftop and plaza used for two days of shooting on January 17th and 18th. We flagged the shoot in our January 2026 update.
- February 2026: Filming wraps. Cho Yi-hyun said she finished on February 4th, zombie extras confirmed the final big shoot on February 14th, and Park Ji-hu posted her wrap on February 18th. Unverified reports put the wrap party on February 19th. Korean wikis list the final day as February 20th.
All in, that’s roughly seven months of filming for a season that is expected to be heavy on visual effects, which has a knock-on effect for the release date we discuss below.
One additional data point from the Korean press: when supporting actor Seo Ji-hoon announced his military enlistment in late January 2026, his agency confirmed to Star News that he had already completed all of his scenes for All of Us Are Dead 2 before reporting for duty on February 3rd.
Who Is in the Cast of All of Us Are Dead Season 2?
Netflix Korea’s July 2025 announcement locked in four returning leads and four new faces:
Returning Cast
| Actor | Character | Season 2 Description (per Netflix Korea) |
|---|---|---|
| Park Ji-hu | Nam On-jo | One of the few survivors of the Hyosan High outbreak, now a university student trying to put the past behind her before disaster strikes again. |
| Yoon Chan-young | Lee Cheong-san | The friend who “fought to protect his friends” in season 1. Netflix’s wording stops short of saying how, or in what state, he returns. |
| Cho Yi-hyun | Choi Nam-ra | The “halfbie” (half-infected) class president who ended season 1 on the school rooftop with others like her. |
| Lomon | Lee Su-hyeok | Still carrying his feelings for Nam-ra. His return was separately confirmed by the production team on July 24th, 2025, per Bridge Economy. |
New Cast
| Actor | Character | Description | Known For |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lee Min-jae | Ma-ru | On-jo’s university senior | Weak Hero Class 2, Crash Course in Romance |
| Kim Si-eun | Ju-ran | An outgoing student juggling the student council and clubs | Squid Game season 2, Next Sohee |
| Roh Jae-won | Han Du-seok | A team leader at the National Intelligence Service who ratchets up the tension | Squid Game seasons 2 and 3, D.P. season 2 |
| Yoon Ga-yi | Jong-a | A cheerful university student known for her blunt talk | SNL Korea, Undercover High School |
Reported But Not Officially Announced
A handful of names have surfaced in Korean exclusives without appearing in Netflix’s official announcement:
- Seo Ji-hoon (Prison Playbook, Begins Youth) was pictured in News1’s June 2025 exclusive, and his agency has since confirmed he filmed the season. His role has not been disclosed.
- Kim Min (Our Blues) was reported by SPOTV News in June 2025 to be playing a character named Jang Ho-seok.
- Han Hyun-jun is listed on Korean fan wikis as playing Park Min-jung, citing a July 2025 exclusive we have not been able to verify independently.
Earlier reports, including our own from June 2025, suggested season 1 supporting players Lee Eun-saem (Park Mi-jin), Ha Seung-ri (Jang Ha-ri), Lim Jae-hyeok (Yang Dae-su) and Kim Bo-yun (Seo Hyo-ryung) would be back. None of them featured in Netflix’s official cast reveal, so treat their involvement as unconfirmed until Netflix says otherwise.
What About Cheong-san?
This is the question Korean outlets jumped on the moment the cast was announced. Dispatch ran its casting story under the headline “Was Cheong-san alive?”, noting season 1 ended with a strong hint of his death when he dragged Gwi-nam into the burning building.
Netflix’s official description of Yoon Chan-young’s return is carefully worded and only references what Cheong-san did in season 1. The actor himself told Korean press back in 2022 that he didn’t know his character’s fate and that “personally, I want him to live.” Director Lee Jae-kyu was similarly cagey in a WikiTree interview at the time: “We do have a plan, but it’s difficult to share it here,” adding that if Cheong-san returned, “some people won’t accept it, and some will be happy about it.”
Our read: Yoon is clearly in the season, but whether that’s flashbacks, a return as a halfbie, or something else entirely is the big mystery Netflix is holding back.
Behind the Camera
Director Lee Jae-kyu and writer Chun Sung-il both return, with Korean reports noting the pair “reunite” for the sequel. Netflix Korea’s pitch line for the season, as quoted by Newsis, is that “an expanded world and stronger characters will make for a more intense season.”
Picture Credit: Netflix
What Will Season 2 Be About?
Netflix’s official logline moves the action out of Hyosan High and into the capital. In the streamer’s words, just as everyone believes the crisis is over and life has returned to normal, a new zombie virus engulfs Seoul.
The fuller synopsis Netflix has been using, which we ran in our most anticipated K-dramas of 2027 piece, reads:
Nam On-jo, who survived the zombie outbreak at Hyosan High, is now a university student in Seoul, still dealing with trauma and the friends she lost. When a new wave of infection suddenly hits Seoul, she is forced into another fight for survival without the people she previously relied on.
A few things to pull out of that:
Korean outlets such as Sports Kyunghyang have consistently described season 2 as expanding from the high school to “university and downtown Seoul.” On-jo’s new circle (Ma-ru, Ju-ran and Jong-a) are all university students, so expect campus-set chaos early on. Roh Jae-won’s NIS team leader suggests the government response, and whatever it knows about the virus and the halfbies, will be a bigger part of the story than the bumbling military of season 1.
Korean fan wikis list the season at 12 episodes, matching season 1. We have been using that figure in our 2027 K-drama lineup, but Netflix has not officially confirmed an episode count or runtimes.
Picture Credit: Netflix
When Will All of Us Are Dead Season 2 Be Released on Netflix?
Netflix has not announced a release date. Here’s what we do know:
- The series was not on Netflix’s 2026 Korean slate announced at the Next on Netflix Korea event on January 21st, 2026. That slate ran to over 30 titles and was presented as the year’s lineup, which is why we’ve been expecting 2027 since the start of the year.
- Rumors of a December 2026 drop have circulated on social media for over a year. We’ve seen nothing to back them up, and with filming only wrapping in February 2026 and a VFX-heavy post-production to get through, we’d consider it unlikely.
- Korean sources are split. Korean Wikipedia still lists “second half of 2026,” which looks outdated. Fan wiki Namu lists February 2027 with an explicit note that it is based on rumor rather than official information.
- Our own 2027 K-drama lineup has it pencilled in for January to February 2027, which lines up with Netflix’s habit of launching a big Korean title in Q1 (season 1 itself arrived in late January 2022).
In short, we’re expecting All of Us Are Dead season 2 to be one of the first major K-dramas of 2027, roughly five years after season 1. You can track it alongside every other returning show in our renewed Netflix series list. We’ll update the moment Netflix confirms.
New Details Incoming at Netflix Korea’s 10th Anniversary Event
The next big date on the calendar is Saturday, October 24th, 2026. As we reported, Netflix Korea is throwing a two-day fan festival called “Netflix Janchi” (Netflix Feast) at Oil Tank Culture Park in Seoul’s Sangam-dong to mark ten years in the country.
Korean trade outlet RNX reported on October 2nd that All of Us Are Dead season 2 has been added to the “What Next?” showcase of upcoming titles alongside the live-action Solo Leveling, Grand Galaxy Hotel, Lee Chang-dong’s Possible Love, Slowly, Intensely (Tantara) and Wolf, Girl. Cast members are scheduled to appear on stage, and the “What Next?” segment will be livestreamed on the Netflix Korea YouTube channel.
Netflix hasn’t promised a teaser, but this is the first time the show will have been presented publicly since the 2022 renewal video, so some kind of first-look footage or a release window announcement would be the natural play. We’ll be covering whatever drops.
Picture Credit: Netflix
Are you excited for the return of All of Us Are Dead on Netflix? Let us know in the comments below.
