Netflix K-drama ‘All of Us Are Dead’ is being hailed as the new ‘Squid Game’

Move over ‘Squid Game’. There’s a new show in town that is eager to take a bite out your fame.

‘All of Us Are Dead’, a new Korean drama that has dropped on Netflix, is already being hailed as the new ‘Squid Game’ as it grabs the top spot worldwide on the streaming giant. The show follows a group of students who are waiting to be rescued after a zombie virus breaks out at their school.

Within a day of its official release on January 28, the show rose to the No. 1 spot on Netflix charts in 25 countries around the globe and made a name for itself as the fourth Korean series to rise to the top of global charts following the worldwide success of ‘Squid Game,’ ‘Hellbound’ and ‘Arcane.’

‘Squid Game’, which released last year on Netflix, became a global pop cultural phenomenon after achieving success worldwide. The Korean drama followed hundreds of cash-strapped contestants who accept an invitation to compete in children’s games for millions, but fail to realise that if you lose, you die.

With live-action renditions of webtoons trending at the moment, ‘All of Us Are Dead’ follows in a similar vein to ‘Hellbound’ and is based on the popular Naver webtoon of the same name by creator Joo Dong-geun.

Director Lee JQ says he was drawn to helm this adaptation because of the setting. “There are a lot of zombie series, but what caught my attention about this was that everything happens in a closed space, a school, with young and immature students,” he said.

While the webtoon, published between 2009 and 2011, is deemed legendary by fans, Lee has not strictly stuck to the script, saying that the characters are still based on the webtoon but their characteristics have slightly changed.

“Different relationships are formed when these diverse characters come together and interact with one another. The origin of the virus, the characters, how these children escape the zombie situation, and what decisions the government makes — these are the elements that differ between the original webtoon and the series,” he says.

Whether or not the unknown nature of the story is what shot the series to fame or it’s the ‘Squid Game’ effect in play, the series is definitely tearing up the charts.