‘Dramaworld 2’ Airs On Amazon And Its Stars Must Save The World Again

If the first season of the 2016 series Dramaworld was an introduction to the addictively entertaining world of Korean dramas, the second season, which launched this week on Amazon, at least partly explores just how far k-dramas have changed since then.

In the first season, an avid k-drama fan named Claire, played by Liv Hewson of Yellowjackets and Santa Clarita Diet, magically falls into Dramaworld, an alternate universe in which all her favorite dramas exist. Something has gone terribly wrong in Dramaworld because a favorite k-drama character, Chef Joon Park, played by actor Sean Dulake, has not fallen for his plucky sous chef following the rules of k-drama romance. With the guidance of Seth, played by Justin Chon (Blue Bayou, Coming Home Again and Twilight), Claire becomes a facilitator, helping to make drama plots happen. However, she gets too involved in the storyline and falls for the leading man, which ends in having to tell him he’s a character in a drama.

The first season made good-natured fun of every lovable k-drama trope with the help of cameos from such Korean stars as actress Han Ji-min and Super Junior member and actor Choi Si-won. In the second season, Claire returns to Dramaworld to help Joon deal with new threats to that world. However, Joon, who was once a classic k-drama leading man, has taken to questioning his identity. 

“Now that he knows he’s a character in a show there’s a lot of self-exploration that goes on,” said Dulake. “While in the first season he’s the stoic, sometimes even stiff, leading man, who is hard to break, in the second season Joon Park is running around Dramaworld always just a little off. He’s trying his best to understand. What I really liked about the second season, playing Joon, is that there’s this innocence that comes out. Joon is raised in Dramaworld and it’s like Dramaworld is his hometown where he was this prince.”

Having realized the truth of his scripted existence, Joon has to figure out who and what he is. “I don’t even know who I am,” said Dulake. “So, what are the values that define me?” 

When Joon Park was a k-drama leading man, he knew exactly how love worked, but in the second season, he must explore whether he and Claire are really meant for each other. He is, after all, from Dramaworld and she is from the real world. 

“Joon is constantly trying to approach love like that prince,” said Dulake. “In Dramaworld there’s an order. You do this and then you do that and now you’re in love and Claire is like, whoa, I’m still in college. There are all these real world elements that come into it, so that really throws Joon off. There’s also another element that ties into his identity, where he has to pick and choose the best parts of Dramaworld in the context of the things he’s learning and being exposed to.”

The characters from two different worlds must try to make their relationship work while the world around them is falling apart. The first season ends with a traditional “true love’s kiss,” but the second season considers some of the trials and tribulations a couple might face after that.

While the first season was a love story with a fantasy twist, the entertaining second season takes on other drama genres. There’s a sci-fi story with vampires and were-tigers. There’s also a 1980s detective thriller. The second season parodies classic k-dramas such as Rooftop Prince and Secret Garden while creatively reinventing k-drama tropes. Joon Park gets to discuss the meaning of life with Claire’s father and Seth hilariously leads a support group for second leads. The inventive plot offers lots of surprises and deftly builds on the world created in the first season.

“The first season of Dramaworld might be considered Korean Entertainment 101,” said Dulake.” We’re telling the story from the perspective of a k-drama fan. It was like a subculture when we first started the show, but now it’s really cool and mainstream to be a Hallyu fan, a fan of Korean content, so we want to use this show as a tool to expand the reach of the genre even further.”

The second season cast features such stars as Ha Ji-won (Secret Garden, Empress Ki) and Henry Lau (A Dog’s Journey, Oh My Venus), Daniel Dae Kim (Lost, Hawaii Five-O, New Amsterdam) and Brett Gray (On My Block), as well as cameos from multiple k-drama and k-pop stars, including Han Hyo-joo, Kim Dong-jun, Kevin Woo and Lee Jung-jae, the star of Squid Game. Multi-talented musician and actor Lau plays the brother Joon never knew he had. The singer also contributed a song for the soundtrack with some help from actress Ha Ji-won.

“Joon is not the leading man in Season Two,” said Dulake, humorously pointing out all the characteristics traditionally associated with being a k-drama leading man. “There’s an inferiority complex around why he’s not the leading man and what that does to him. I actually am very jealous of my brother that I find out I have, played by Henry Lau. He’s taller than me, he’s got more chiseled abs than I have, he’s just immaculate and then he plays the violin. It’s infuriating because he speaks more languages than I do.”

Dulake, who starred in the films Ktown Cowboys,  Operation Chromite and Battle of Jangsari, as well as the dramas Athena Goddess of War and Take Care of Us Captain, thinks the timing could not be better for the release of Dramaworld 2, which he co-produced with Third Culture Content partner and series director Chris Martin.

“Given the recent success of massive Korean series and films like Squid Game and Parasite, Dramaworld is a series that celebrates the genre of Korean entertainment by transporting viewers into a fantastical world where all Korean dramas exist. We follow a diverse cast of characters who come from different cultures and speak different languages that band together to save a world grounded in love. For viewers who’ve never seen a Korean drama before, think of Dramaworld as your gateway introduction into the genre that’s sweeping the world.” 

The first season of Dramaworld  won “Most Popular Foreign Drama of the Year’ at the Seoul International Drama Awards. Both the first and second seasons of the star-studded series launched in the U.S. on Feb. 12 on IMDb TV, Amazon’s free streaming service. IMDb TV is available as an app on Fire TV and many third party devices, on Fire tablets, and as a free channel within Prime Video.

Dramaworld 2 is a co-production between US-based Third Culture Content and South Korean production company Raemongraein (RMRI) in association with T&B Media Global. Executive producers are Dulake, Martin, Alex Cotraviwat, YouTube co-founder Steve Chen, Jamie Chen, Dong Rea Kim of RMRI, Simon Lee, founder of AI linguistic data company Flitto; and Daniel Dae Kim of 3AD, who facilitated the Amazon deal.

Third Culture Content is working on a variety of projects, including a film that Dulake co-wrote, featuring a k-pop star, and an unscripted music series with another k-pop star. The creators of Dramaworld have not ruled out making another season.

“We’re hoping the show performs well on the Amazon platform so we can go on to a season three,” said Dulake. “That would be wonderful.”