The director of Train to Busan has hinted at a new film in the popular zombie franchise. Yeon Sang-ho, whose recent TV series Hellbound just premiered on Netflix this month, talked to Variety about his future projects, including the future of his zombie universe.
In the interview, Sang-ho discussed a whole range of exciting topics. When asked about a potential third live-action zombie installment to follow last years hit film Peninsula, Sang-ho mentioned that he had some ideas:
“I believe that the zombie genre is very traditional but at the same time, depending on what you bring to that, it can be completely new. Personally, I do have some ideas in terms of further development of what happens after Peninsula. But as for whether I will create that into a film, it’s something that I do want to do. However, because there are a lot of productions that I’m working on currently, I’m thinking that I have to sort of organize the ideas and work on what I have to work on. Up until now, I have been someone who’s been an individual creator. But these days I’m thinking that maybe I need to come up with a system in order to really bring all of my creative visions to life.”
On the topic of adding more to the story, it does not seem like we will be getting a TV adaptation of Train to Busan, Sang-ho seemed to have given it quite a bit of thought:
“There are a lot of ideas I’ve been tossing around but I personally think that for Train to Busan, I would like to continue that as a film series. In Korea, the circumstances are not very favourable to create a series in the Korean language with visuals that are comparable to Train to Busan the film and also, you know, I have to work with … the distributor that we started on the original film as well. So I think taking into consideration all of those conditions, a film series would be the most feasible.”
After Peninsula offered a wildly different experience than Train to Busan, Sang-ho hinted at a return to form in the next chapter.
“I would say that — in terms of that universe — they’ll all become related together. Peninsula was a post-apocalyptic film that focused on the car chases. The story that I’m thinking about after that would be closer to Train to Busan, where the story will be carried out in a small and restricted space. That’s something that I have in mind currently. So in terms of the genre, you could say that it’s between Train to Busan and Peninsula.”
Read the synopsis for Hellbound below:
Unbelievable demonstrations of hell take place in the middle of Seoul right in front of crowds. Mysterious beings condemn individuals to be hellbound, and otherworldly beings appear exactly at the specified time to kill the condemned in a brutal burning. Rising above the utter chaos resulting from these inexplicable supernatural occurrences is the commanding voice of Jung Jinsu, the leader of an up-and-coming religious organization, The New Truth. He claims that only sinners are marked for condemnation and that these occurrences represent divine will to make humans righteous. A group of his followers with blind faith, the Arrowhead, take into their own hands the punishment of those who go against the divine will. The world becomes a living hell.