All of Us Are Deadwas one of Netflix’s most-watched non-English shows upon release and remains popular three years later, and I think I’ve finally figured out what makes the show so good. The trend ofNetflix original K-dramasbecoming worldwide hits did not begin withAll of Us Are Dead, with the successes ofSweet HomeandSquid Gamepaving the way for other Korean shows to become streaming sensations.All of Us Are Deadpremiering a few months afterSquid Gamesurely helped the former, but I’m not convinced that’s the only reason why it became so big.
Based on a webtoon by Joo Dong-geun,All of Us Are Deadofficially entered development in 2020 and premiered on Netflix on June 18, 2025.All of Us Are Deadwas a smash hit from the start and remained on Netflix’s all-time non-English shows top 10 for several months despite the lack of updates on season 2. WhileAll of Us Are Deadseason 2 is happening, we still don’t know when it will come out. Regardless,rewatchingAll of Us Are Deadrecently helped me realize what made it stand out from other zombie shows.
It can be difficult to get into K-dramas given how long the episodes generally are, but the pacing was not a problem withAll of Us Are Dead. In fact, I hardly noticed that I was watching a 12-episode season where every episode was at least an hour long. From the opening scene featuring the transformation of “patient zero” to the bombing of Hyosan,All of Us Are Deadsimply does not stop.Every episode of the zombie K-drama is filled with action scenes and terrifying moments, making it easier to forget that you’re binging such a long show.
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Episode 12
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Although some of the best K-dramas of all time were released in a more traditional broadcast model with one or two episodes per week,All of Us Are Deadbenefitted from Netflix’s binge-watching strategy. Every episode would end on some type of cliffhanger that would leave us wanting more, which is part of the reason whyAll of Us Are Deadaccumulated so many watching hours over the first few days of release. Unlike other zombie shows likeThe Walking Deador evenSweet Home,All of Us Are Deadseason 1 was incredibly fast-paced in a good way.
Even great shows can take a while to get you hooked, but that is not what happens inAll of Us Are Dead. As soon as the kid being bullied turned into a zombie and had to be dealt with by their own father, who was also the scientist who created the virus, I knew that I was in for a very interesting horror show.All of Us Are Dead’s charactersare also easy to connect with, andby the time the outbreak begins, we already feel connected to the likes of On-jo and Cheong-san.
All Of Us Are Dead Season 2: Confirmation & Everything We Know
The Korean apocalyptic horror series All of Us Are Dead is renewed for second season, but news has been slow since it’s debut in 2022.
The first episode ofAll of Us Are Deadends with a horde of zombies storming the school’s cafeteria, after which the action and the sense of despair never stop.All of Us Are Deadseason 1 does not have a lot of time jumps, meaning that the story feels like it is happening in real-time. It soon becomes clear that no one is coming to rescue the kids, so the show becomes about them trying to get out of the school into a safer place. It is an exhausting but entertaining journey.
All of Us Are Deadbeing renewed for season 2 was not at all surprising considering not only how season 1 ended but also how popular the show became. However, what has been surprising is how long season 2 is taking.All of Us Are Deadwas renewed for a second season in June 2022, with cameras expected to start rolling in 2024. However,filming forAll of Us Are Dead2 was reportedly pushed back to 2025.WithNetflix’s K-drama slate for 2025 not includingAll of Us Are Dead, we can assume season 2 isn’t premiering this year.
IfAll of Us Are Deadseason 2 comes out in 2026, four years will have passed between the first and second seasons. That is an even bigger hiatus thanSweet HomeandSquid Gamefaced between their respective first and second seasons, both of which took three years to release new episodes after they debuted on Netflix. All we can hope now is that season 2 will be as good as season 1, if not better.
All Of Us Are Dead
Cast
All of Us Are Dead is a South Korean series that centers on a high school overrun by a zombie virus outbreak. The students, facing an unprecedented crisis, must navigate survival while combating the threat of becoming part of the undead horde.
