At the press conference for Made in Korea Season 2 in Seoul, the cast and director Woo Min-ho offered hints of what lies ahead. Judging from their comments, the Disney+ drama is about to make its battle for power considerably more personal.
Nine years have passed since the events of the first season. But time has done little to extinguish the ambitions, grudges and wounds left behind. If anything, they have grown sharper.
Hyun Bin returns as Baek Ki-tae, the ambitious businessman who has spent years clawing his way towards greater wealth and influence. And with that success comes an even greater appetite for power.
“Ki-tae has considerably more power and wealth than he did in Season 1,” Hyun Bin explained at the press conference. But rather than being content with what he has achieved, Ki-tae wants more.
That hunger is one of the things that makes him such a compelling character. He may have climbed higher, but he is hardly at peace. Instead, Season 2 finds Ki-tae increasingly isolated as the people and forces around him begin to turn against him. And perhaps the biggest threat comes from somewhere he never expected.
One of the most intriguing changes in Season 2 is the expanded role of Baek Ki-hyun, played by Woo Do-hwan.
Ki-hyun is no longer the younger, less experienced man audiences knew in Season 1. Nine years have passed, and he has grown into a soldier with his own principles and convictions. The problem?
Those convictions may put him directly in his brother’s path.
For Hyun Bin, that complicated relationship is central to Ki-tae’s story this season. His character may be prepared to fight almost anyone to protect his empire, but Ki-hyun is different. He is family. That leaves Ki-tae facing a particularly painful dilemma: what happens when protecting the people you love means standing against them?
Director Woo Min-ho said Season 2 deliberately digs much deeper into the Baek family’s relationships, exploring how nine years have changed the way the siblings see one another. There is affection, resentment, loyalty and anger, all at once.
It is, in the director’s words, a complicated “love-and-hate” relationship. And that could prove to be one of the season’s most compelling storylines.
Then there is Jang Geon-young. Played by Jung Woo-sung, Geon-young enters Season 2 from a very different position. He has lost almost everything, and what remains is a burning desire to bring Ki-tae down.
On the surface, he is pursuing justice. But Jung Woo-sung offered a more complicated interpretation of his character at the press conference. Geon-young may not even realise that revenge is driving him.
He believes he is doing the right thing. He believes he is fighting for justice. Yet underneath that conviction sits a personal wound that has never healed. That makes his confrontation with Ki-tae much more interesting than a simple hero-versus-villain battle. Neither man sees himself as the villain. Both believe they have a reason to keep going. And neither appears willing to surrender.
The drama once again ventures into one of the most politically turbulent periods in modern Korean history, but director Woo is not simply repeating what audiences have already seen.
At the press conference, the cast addressed the similarities while stressing that Made in Korea tells a different story and approaches the period through its own fictional characters and conflicts.
With its high-stakes power struggles, simmering family tensions and two formidable forces in Hyun Bin and Jung Woo-sung at the centre of the storm, Made in Korea Season 2 promises plenty of twists, betrayals and emotional battles. Whether you’ve been following Ki-tae’s rise from the beginning or are just discovering the series, now is the time to dive in and see how far these characters are willing to go for power, justice and the people they refuse to let go of. Catch Made in Korea Season 2 on Disney+ and watch the battle unfold.
Premiere Date: 9 September 2026
Synopsis: Nine years after the events of Season 1, Baek Kitae stands at the height of his power, Jang Geonyoung is prepared to strike back, and Baek Kihyun is pursuing a path to a different kind of power. Their ambitions run rampant and create an irreversible rift that threatens to upend everything in Made in Korea Season 2.
We would like to thank Disney+ for inviting us to attend the virtual press conference.
Picture Credits: Disney+ Singapore
(Image credit: SBS)
(Image credit: SBS)
(Image credit: SBS)
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