Apple TV+ Renews Drama Series for Season 2
Apple TV+ will continue to tell its critically-acclaimed multigenerational story of a Korean family. The streamer announced Friday that its critically-acclaimed family drama Pachinko has been renewed for Season 2. The renewal announcement came just hours ahead of the series' Season 1 finale. Pachinko comes from creator-showrunner Soo Hugh and executive producers Theresa Kang-Lowe and Michael Ellenberg.
"Words cannot express my joy in being able to continue telling the extraordinary story of this indomitable family," Hugh said in a press release of the renewal. "I'm grateful to the amazing team at Apple and Media Res studio for believing and supporting this show, and to our passionate fans who have cheered us on. It's an honor to be able to continue working with this amazing cast and crew."
Originally premiering in late March, Pachinko is a multigenerational drama that follows a South Korean immigrant family across four generations. The series chronicles their hopes and dreams as they leave their homeland in an indomitable quest to survive and thrive. Season 2, according to the streamer, "will continue the riveting story that spans generations and is told across three languages – Korean, Japanese, and English." Teasing Season 2 in a recent interview with Deadline, Kang-Lowe shared that "the stakes get even bigger and it's actually even more dramatic because what happens is you see with occupation how something is coming towards everyone in Korean-based families. What happens in season two is the scale grows and the stakes get even higher." Kang-Lowe also teased that "the third generation is definitely something that we were talking about."
Throughout its first season, Pachinko has been lauded by both critics and audience members, with Apple TV+ noting in its press release that the series "received broad critical acclaim and was hailed as 'one of the best things on TV,' 'TV's newest masterpiece,' 'a triumph' and 'one of the best adaptations of all time.'" The series currently holds a 98% critics rating on Rotten Tomatoes, aggregated from 56 reviews. The audience score sits at 95% on the site.
Pachinko stars Academy Award-winning actress Yuh-Jung Youn as older Sunja, Lee Minho as Hansu, Jin Ha as Solomon, Minha Kim as teenage Sunja, Anna Sawai as Naomi, Eunchae Jung as young Kyunghee, Inji Jeong as Yangjin, Jimmi Simpson as Tom Andrews, Junwoo Han as Yoseb, Kaho Minami as Etsuko, Steve Sanghyun Noh as Isak, Soji Arai as Mozasu, and Yuna as young Sunja. Season 1 is now available for streaming in full on Apple TV+. Season 2 does not yet have a premiere date.