‘Zombieverse’ creator feels confident about entertaining viewers with realistic zombie show

TV director Park Jin-kyung shared the satisfaction with his new variety show “Zombieverse,” believing that he was able to draw out realistic reactions from cast and create a project which is more than enough to entertain viewers.

“Instead of feeling the pressure, I am excited to know the result after ‘Zombieverse’ is released today,” Park said during press conference held at the Hotel Naru Seoul MGallery in Mapo-gu, western Seoul on Tuesday.

The director revealed that he had planned a zombie-themed TV show before Korean-style zombies were recognized by both local and global audience with hit series like “Kingdom,” “All of Us Are Dead” and more.

“Thanks to the smash hit zombie series and films, our country was filled with talented zombie experts. I wanted to take advantage of that as much as I could,” he said.

Park said that the actors, who were specialized in playing zombie characters, movement directors, make-up specialists and choreographers were crucial to his show.

“The staff’s role was very limited. We only brought the cast to the shooting site and gave a brief introduction about the situation. But, the zombie actors went through countless rehearsals to react to the various, impromptu situations,” he said.

Park added that how the zombies greet the cast was important to bring out their realistic reactions. And he felt that the actors’ performances were more than enough to make the cast believe they were “real” zombies.

The creator said that he tried to have characters that were familiar to audiences in existing zombie-themed thriller series or horror films.

“There was always a doctor, a sibling, someone with a military background, a foreigner and former sports athlete. For example, I was curious about whether the siblings would take care of each other in a catastrophic situation,” Park said.

“I felt that it might be boring if the cast had to ‘act’ as if they were infected by the zombie virus. I asked them to wear thick contact lenses to blur their vision and wear splints for realistic performances,” he added, promising that the cast’s hard work will pay off with a stunning zombie show.

The eight-part “Zombieverse” revolves around 10 TV personalities who need to survive against zombies and escape from a virus-filled Korean Peninsula.

“Zombieverse,” which was released on Tuesday, is available exclusively on Netflix.