Netflix and Yeon Sang-ho Are Going Back to 'Parasyte' — This Time With Shioli Kutsuna at the Center

Netflix announced Thursday morning from Seoul that it's returning to the world of *Parasyte* with a new Japanese-language season called *Parasyte: Tamiya*. The series is already in post-production and is set to premiere in 2027.

Yeon Sang-ho, the Korean filmmaker who developed *Parasyte: The Grey* in 2024, is back as the lead creative force. He developed the story and co-wrote all episodes alongside his regular collaborator Ryu Yong-jae. Directing duties are split between Japanese filmmakers Kensaku Kakimoto (*Glass Heart*) and Kazuhiro Nakagawa (*Double*, *Bullet Train Explosion*). WOWPOINT, which has become something of a home base for Yeon's recent work, is producing.

Shioli Kutsuna stars as Ryoko Tamiya, the season's central character — a parasyte who, in Hitoshi Iwaaki's original manga, is one of the more philosophically complex figures in the story. Kutsuna has been building a quiet but notable Netflix relationship: she previously appeared in the sumo drama *Sanctuary* and has the live-action *Gundam* film coming up on the platform. She's also known internationally from the *Deadpool* franchise.

The role apparently demanded a lot. "During the six months I spent living as Tamiya, I experienced many emotions I had never encountered before," Kutsuna said. She called it "the most challenging role I have ever played in my acting career."

Yeon was direct about why Tamiya warranted her own season. "Ryoko Tamiya is a truly captivating villain in the original manga," he said. "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." He described her internal conflict — between the parasytes' need to survive and their uneasy relationship with humanity — as "the essence of Parasyte."

Of Kutsuna's performance, he said she "did a wonderful job of portraying the process of a non-human creature coming to understand both humanity and its own existence."

The original manga ran from 1988 to 1995 under Kodansha. It's been adapted multiple times, including a two-part Japanese film franchise directed by Takashi Yamazaki, who later made *Godzilla Minus One*. Yeon's *Parasyte: The Grey* — a Korean-language take on the material — spent four weeks on Netflix's Global Top 10 Non-English TV list in 2024 and topped rankings in 34 countries when it launched. That kind of performance makes a follow-up an easy call.

Yoshihiro Sato, who manages live-action creative at Netflix Japan, framed the new series around the manga's questions feeling newly urgent. "'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 said.

The announcement comes at a busy moment for Yeon. His zombie film *Colony*, starring Jun Ji-hyun, has grossed $42.4 million in South Korea since its late May release, making it one of the year's biggest Korean hits — it premiered at Cannes Midnight. His series *The Human Vapor*, made with Toho, just launched on Netflix. And his AI-themed thriller *Paradise Lost* is set to premiere at the Toronto Film Festival this fall.

*Parasyte: Tamiya* arrives on Netflix in 2027.

[Original Source](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/netflix-yeon-sang-ho-parasyte-tamiya-series-1236653812/)