Korean hitmaker Yeon Sang-ho’s Parasyte universe is getting an all-new host body to infect. On Thursday morning from Seoul, Netflix unveiled Parasyte: Tamiya, an upcoming Japanese season of the hit sci-fi horror series that has delighted fans with its inspired K-drama reimagining of artist Hitoshi Iwaaki’s best-selling manga.
Yeon, fresh off the release of Netflix thriller series Human Vapor and zombie blockbuster Colony, returns as the lead creative force behind the show, having developed its story and co-written all episodes with his regular collaborator Ryu Yong-jae. Netflix says the new season is already in post-production and will premiere on the service sometime in 2027.
The original Parasyte: The Grey spent four weeks on Netflix’s Global Top 10 Non-English TV list in 2024 and topped the rankings in 34 countries upon its release.
Whereas the original season’s novelty came from transplanting Iwaaki’s classic manga to a South Korean setting, the new chapter is said to burrow more deeply into the original source material. Japanese actress Shioli Kutsuna, best known to global viewers for her recurring part in the Deadpool franchise, stars as Ryoko Tamiya, a parasite who seizes the body of a high school teacher and — initially as ruthless as the rest of her kind — gradually comes to suspect that coexistence with humans, rather than predation, may offer her species its best chance of survival. The series tells that story from her side of the divide, with Kutsuna playing the character in three registers: the original human, the violent creature that takes her over and the evolving being caught between the two.
