From fantasy rom-com series to mystery-thrillers to the final season of ‘Squid Game.’
If you’re a Netflix subscriber who has yet to dip your toe into the world of South Korean entertainment, you are in a small minority. According to the streaming giant, “over 80% of Netflix members around the world watch K-content” with Korean-language TV shows and movies joining Spanish and Japanese content as the most popular among U.S. audiences. 2024 was one of the biggest years for K-dramas and Korean reality shows on the platform, with shows like Queen of Tears, The Glory, and Crash Landing On You dominating the platform.
Even before Squid Game season 2 wrapped up Netflix’s 2024 Korean slate last Christmas, fans began looking forward to the releases that will fill our watchlists in 2025. On February 4, Netflix revealed their entire slate of the year’s upcoming Korean TV shows. So far, 2025 has dominated by epic new stories starring Hallyu’s biggest stars, while several hit reality competitions are also set to return. Read on for our running list of the best K-dramas coming to Netflix in 2025.
Confirmed Release Date
When the Stars Gossip
Release date: January 4
This rom-com K-drama has a straightforward plot description: “An astronaut and a tourist meet and fall in love at a space station.” Hallyu superstar Lee Min-ho plays the space tourist Gong Ryong, an OB/GYN dating the heir to Korea’s richest corporation.When the Camellia Blooms’ Gong Hyo-jin plays Eve Kim, the perfectionist commander who has to keep Gong alive.
Single’s Inferno season 4
Release date: January 14
The fourth season of Single’s Inferno marked a big moment for Netflix Korea’s unscripted shows, as the first one to be renewed for four seasons. Season 4 featured a new cast, including standout members like Lee Si-an and Jang Theo, who roughed it out on an abandoned island dubbed Inferno, flirting and competing in challenges in hopes of winning a Paradise date in a luxury hotel.
Trauma Code: Heroes on Call
Release date: January 24
Netflix’s first original medical K-drama is an adaptation of the webcomic Severe Trauma Center: Golden Hour, produced by WEBTOON Entertainment’s Studio N. The comedy-thriller centers on an ensemble cast led by Kingdom and Light Shop star Ju Ji-hoon. The show’s description reads, “Genius surgeon Baek Kang-hyuk transforms a university hospital’s budget-draining trauma team into a trauma center that saves lives.”
Melo Movie
Release date: February 14
We spent Valentine’s Day 2025 with this romance K-drama’s all-star cast. Five years ago, movie buffs Ko Gyeom (Choi Woo-shik) and Kim Mu-bee (Park Bo-young) fell for each other before Gyeom disappeared. Five years later, the pair reunite as movie critic Gyeon interviews director Mu-bee about her new film…and becomes her next-door neighbor. Lee Jun-young and Jeon So-nee costar as exes who also reunite to work on a new movie.
The Potato Lab
Release date: March 1
Korean rom-coms love a theme: This lighthearted drama follows a spud-crazy romance. The synopsis: “In The Potato Lab, Mi-kyung’s (Lee Sun-bin) potato-centric life is upended by Baek-ho (Extraordinary Attorney Woo’s Kang Tae-oh), a cold pragmatist. A whirlwind healing romantic comedy unfolds, as twisty as a tornado potato.”
When Life Gives You Tangerines
Release date: March 7
Six years after starring in Hotel del Luna, K-pop star/actress IU returned to the K-drama world, in the latest series from My Mister director Kim Won-seok. This weekly drama takes place on Jeju Island and “chronicles the adventures of Ae-sun (IU and Moon So-ri), ‘the remarkable rebel,’ and Gwan-sik, (Park Bo-gum and Park Hae-joon), the ‘unyielding iron,’ including Gwan-sik’s long-standing crush on Ae-sun since they were young.”
Karma
Release date: April 4
Squid Game season 1 star Park Hae-soo and Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha’s Shin Min-a lead this crime thriller K-drama based on the Kakao webtoon of the same name. Per the description, the show follows “six people caught in an unbreakable karmic loop, each bound by reckless choices that spiral out of control.” The main cast is rounded out by A Killer Paradox’s Lee Hee-joon, D.P.’s Kim Sung-kyun, Running Man alum Lee Kwang-soo, and The First Responders’ Gong Seung-yeon.
Friendly Rivalry
Release date: April 6
After its domestic premiere earlier this year, Netflix brought this acclaimed high-school thriller to the platform. Woo Seul-gi (Chung Su-bin) is a studious orphan who moves from her provincial hometown to Seoul to attend the elite Chaehwa High School. She quickly befriends Yoo Je-yi (Lee Hye-ri), Chaehwa’s most popular student, to the surprise of everyone…including Seul-gi herself. The series unfurls the duo’s complicated relationship, as well as the journeys of Je-yi’s lackeys Ye-ri (Kang Hye-won) and Kyung (Oh Woo-ri).
Kian’s Bizarre B&B
Release date: April 8
Webtoon (or manhwa) writer and TV personality Kian84 leads this new variety show, where he “sets up and runs an extraordinary guesthouse on the island of Ulleungdo called KIAN Bizarre B&B, which offers a unique experience for young visitors.” According to the description, “the guesthouse operates in a realm between healing and hilarity,” as Kian welcomes a diverse selection of guests, with the help of his part-timers, BTS member Jin and actress Ji Ye-eun.
Resident Playbook
Release date: April 12
Three years after Hospital Playlist’s final episode, the long-awaited spinoff Resident Playbook has finally arrived. Per the description, the new medical drama “follows the lives and friendships of OB-GYN residents at Jongno Yulje Medical Center, a branch of the iconic Yulje Hospital.” Moving’s Go Youn-jung leads the cast, which includes Shin Shi-ah, Han Ye-ji, Kang You-seok, and Jung Jun-won.
Heavenly Ever After
Release date: April 19
This rom-com puts a new spin on one of Korea’s most popular fantasy concepts: the afterlife. Octogenarian Lee Hae-sook (Kim Hye-ja) is a kind-hearted loan shark whose husband Ko Nak-jun died a year ago. When it’s Hae-sook’s time to go, she discovers that she has a choice to live with a specific person and be her desired age for all eternity. Deciding to remain her current age after a dying Nak-jun said she’s never been more beautiful, Hae-sook arrives in Heaven to find her devoted husband…who’s now in his 30s (played by Son Suk-ku). Come for the extreme age-gap romance, and stay for the scenes of deceased pets reuniting with their loved ones as humans.
Weak Hero Class 2
Release date: April 25
Weak Hero Class 1 was one of the best thriller dramas of 2022, following high school student Yeon Si-eun (Park Ji-hoon) as he struggled against brutal school violence. Now, Netflix has taken the reins for the show’s second season, in which Si-eun challenges a new set of lethal bullies after he’s transferred to a new school. Weak Hero Class 2’s cast also includes Twinkling Watermelon’s Ryeoun, XO Kitty’s Choi Min-young, and Crash Course in Romance’s Lee Min-jae.
The Devil’s Plan: Death Room
Release date: May 6
For viewers more interested in games of mental wit than physical strength, The Devil’s Plan is set to return for a second season. The exciting first season brought together contestants from various fields to solve sophisticated mental games for the chance at a 250 million won (approximately $173,000) prize. Season 2’s confirmed cast includes Single’s Inferno host Kyuhyun, EXchange/Transit Love alum Jung Hyun-gyu, legendary Go player Lee Se Dol, K-pop soloist Chuu, and Beef and The Umbrella Academy star Justin H. Min.
Tastefully Yours
Release date: May 12
Squid Game’s Kang Ha-neul and Sweet Home’s Go Min-si lead this upcoming rom-com that may rival Culinary Class Wars as the best food-related show of the year. Per the description, “In an attempt to inherit a food corporation, Han Beom-woo (Kang), a chaebol heir turned ‘recipe hunter,’ meets Mo Yeon-joo (Go), a stubborn chef who runs a one-table restaurant in the small city of Jeonju, South Korea. Their fierce kitchen encounters unfold into a shimmering romance.”
Dear Hongrang
Release date: May 16
This historical K-drama, adapted from Jang Da-hye’s novel Hong Rang: Swallowing Gold, will chronicle the bond between step-siblings Hong-rang (Alchemy of Souls’ Lee Jae-wook) and Jae-yi (Destined With You’s Jo Bo-ah). Over a decade after Hong-rang disappeared at the age of eight, he returns home with no memory, and Jae-yi becomes “torn between doubt and love for her enigmatic step-brother,” per Netflix.
Better Late than Single
Release date: May 27
After the success of Single’s Inferno, Netflix’s newest reality dating show will help “eternal singles” find their chance at love. The makeover show will follow a group of adults who’ve never been in a relationship, as they “undergo an intensive inside-out transformation, [from] personal style and grooming to mindset and communication” while living together and going on dates.
Squid Game season 3
Release date: June 27
Netflix has confirmed that Squid Game’s final episodes will arrive on the streamer in 2025, bringing the story of Gi-hun (Lee Jung-jae) and (hopefully) the sadistic Game to an end. It’s anyone’s guess how the series’ creator Hwang Dong-hyuk will conclude one of Netflix’s most-watched shows ever.
Confirmed by Netflix
Aema
Release date: TBA (expected Q3 2025)
In 1982, the movie Madame Aema made history as one of the box-office hits of that year, and as the most erotic Korean film of its time. This comedy series set in Chungmuro, the heart of the Korean film industry in 1980s Seoul, will depict the fictionalized process of creating the film. Among the characters involved are Jeong Hui-ran (Lee Ha-nee), the acclaimed diva who’s removed from the lead role due to studio disputes; Shin Joo-ae (Bong Hyo-rin), a nightclub dancer who’s suddenly cast as the film’s new star; and Kwak In-woo (Cho Hyun-chul), the timid rookie director about to make his directorial debut.
As You Stood By
Release date: TBA (expected Q4 2025)
Parasyte: The Grey’s Jeon So-nee and Squid Game’s Lee Yoo-mi star in this K-drama adaptation of Hideo Okuda’s novel Naomi to Kanako. Longtime friends Eun-su (Jeon) and Hui-su (Lee) suffered traumatic childhoods and grew up to be unhappy in their adult lives. One day, they decide to finally change their lives…by killing Hui-su’s abusive husband (played by Jang Seung-Jo).
Can This Love Be Translated?
Release date: TBA (expected Q4 2025)
Famed screenwriting duo the Hong sisters (Alchemy of Souls, Hotel del Luna) are behind this exciting rom-com, starring Moving’s Go Youn-jung and Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha’s Kim Seon-ho. Per the description, “an unexpected romance blossoms between multilingual translator Ju Ho-jin and global celebrity Cha Mu-hee, as their professional relationship takes unpredictable and heartwarming turns.”