Korean hitmaker Yeon Sang-ho’s Parasyte universe is getting an all-new host body to infect. On Thursday morning from Seoul, Netflix unveiled Parasyte: Tamiya, an upcoming Japanese season of the hit sci-fi horror series that has delighted fans with its inspired K-drama reimagining of artist Hitoshi Iwaaki’s best-selling manga.
Yeon, fresh off the release of Netflix thriller series Human Vapor and zombie blockbuster Colony, returns as the lead creative force behind the show, having developed its story and co-written all episodes with his regular collaborator Ryu Yong-jae. Netflix says the new season is already in post-production and will premiere on the service sometime in 2027.
The original Parasyte: The Grey spent four weeks on Netflix’s Global Top 10 Non-English TV list in 2024 and topped the rankings in 34 countries upon its release.
Whereas the original season’s novelty came from transplanting Iwaaki’s classic manga to a South Korean setting, the new chapter is said to burrow more deeply into the original source material. Japanese actress Shioli Kutsuna, best known to global viewers for her recurring part in the Deadpool franchise, stars as Ryoko Tamiya, a parasite who seizes the body of a high school teacher and — initially as ruthless as the rest of her kind — gradually comes to suspect that coexistence with humans, rather than predation, may offer her species its best chance of survival. The series tells that story from her side of the divide, with Kutsuna playing the character in three registers: the original human, the violent creature that takes her over and the evolving being caught between the two.
Japanese actress Shioli Kutsuna as Ryoko Tamiya.
Netflix
“Ryoko Tamiya is a truly captivating villain in the original manga,” Yeon says. “Her struggles over the nature of her own existence are what elevate the original Parasyte from a simple hero-based manga aimed at kids to something deeper.”
“I wanted to convey her perpetual struggle over the need for parasites to coexist with humans and the issue of their survival, and how she suffers setbacks and learns over time,” the filmmaker adds. “I think the anguish she experiences is the essence of Parasyte.”
Kutsuna, who previously worked with Netflix on the sumo drama Sanctuary and will appear in the streamer’s upcoming live-action Gundam film, calls Tamiya “the most challenging role I have ever played in my acting career.”
She adds: “During the six months I spent living as Tamiya, I experienced many emotions I had never encountered before.”
Yeon adds: “She did a wonderful job of portraying the process of a non-human creature coming to understand both humanity and its own existence.”
Yeon has become one of Netflix’s most consistent and prolific collaborators in East Asia. His projects at the streamer as a creator, director or writer include Hellbound (two seasons), sci-fi feature Jung_E, occult chiller The Bequeathed, Parasyte: The Grey, last year’s Revelations and the just-launched The Human Vapor, his big-budget Japanese series collaboration with Toho. He’s kept just as busy as a theatrical filmmaker. Colony, the Cannes Midnight-premiered zombie thriller starring Jun Ji-hyun that returned him to Train to Busan territory, has grossed $42.4 million in South Korea since late May, making it one of the year’s biggest Korean hits. He’s simultaneously been experimenting with ultra-low-budget filmmaking, having released mystery thriller The Ugly last year, and with the AI-themed thriller Paradise Lost set to premiere at the Toronto Film Festival this fall.
For Parasyte: Tamiya, Yeon reunites with Grey co-writer Ryu Yong-jae, while Japanese filmmakers Kensaku Kakimoto (Glass Heart) and Kazuhiro Nakagawa (Double, Bullet Train Explosion) direct the episodes. WOWPOINT, the production house behind The Grey, The Human Vapor and Colony, produces.
Iwaaki’s manga, published by Kodansha from 1988 to 1995, has previously spawned an anime series and a two-part Japanese film franchise directed by Godzilla Minus One‘s Takashi Yamazaki.
Says Yoshihiro Sato, manager of live-action creative at Netflix Japan: “‘What makes a human?’ ‘Can we coexist with beings that are different from us?’ — These questions posed by Parasyte more than 30 years ago feel much more pressing for our modern society that has placed non-sentient AI at all of our fingertips.”
He adds: “Our purpose in making this series was to take the universal questions posed by the original manga 30 years ago and bring them into the modern spotlight.”