Cover Bong Joon-ho has confirmed follow-up projects to the Oscar-winning Parasite. (Photo: Getty Images)

The award-winning Korean director plans to go far behind just one sequel

It’s been just over a year since Korean director Bong Joon-ho set a new standard for what it means to produce a compelling thriller film with his award-winning Parasite. After winning Best Picture at last year’s Academy Awards, fans of the director’s slow burn cinema have anxiously awaited a new project—and unsurprisingly, Bong plans to deliver.

“It feels like I’m splitting my brain in half left and right writing these two scripts. But I finished one last week,” Bong explained on an episode of The Director’s Cut podcast earlier this month, as he announced his plans to produce not one, but two sequels to the internationally praised film. 

Not much else has been revealed about the plot of the two films thus far, however, Bong has confirmed that one film will be written in Korean, while the other one will be written in English.

The award-winning director also added that “the Korean film is located in Seoul and has unique elements of horror and action” but also noted that “it’s difficult to define the genre of my films.”

The English-language project, on the other hand, will be based on “a true event that happened in 2016.” And while Bong insists that he won’t know exactly where the project will be filmed, he expects it to take place half in the UK and half in the United States.

Aside from the two follow-up films, Bong is also currently developing an English-language Parasite HBO series with director Adam McKay—which is expected to utilise some of the discarded ideas from the film’s original script.

While news of not one, but two confirmed Parasite sequels is reason for fans of Bong films to get excited, it’s still unclear when the films will begin filming, let alone be released to the public. The director remains tight-lipped about any specific details, but as i-D points out in a recent report, most of Bong’s films have been released within two years of each other—so chances are good that we’ll see at least one of the two films come to fruition as soon as 2022.

See also: Parasite Director Bong Joon Ho Named Jury President of 78th Venice International Film Festival