Hellbound – Picture: Netflix / Climax Studio
One of the surprise announcements from Netflix’s TUDUM event during their Korean content showcase is the official announcement that Yeon Sang Ho’s Hellbound has been renewed for season 2.
Hellbound is a South Korean Netflix Original horror series written and directed by Yeon Sang-Ho and is an adaptation of the popular South Korean webtoon Hell.
The series was one of the biggest K-Drama released on Netflix in 2021, only second to the worldwide phenomenon Squid Game. The show is critically acclaimed, carrying a 97% RottenTomatoes rating and scooping up numerous awards.
Hellbound Season 2 Netflix Renewal Status
Official Netflix Renewal Status: Renewed (Last Updated: 24/09/2022)
Since Hellbound was released on Netflix over ten months ago, we’ve had complete radio silence surrounding any news on renewal. Convinced that the series wasn’t returning for a second season, we were incredibly surprised to learn at the Netflix TUDUM event that Hellbound has been renewed for season 2.
Viewing Data
In its first week, the show was watched for 43,480,000 hours by subscribers globally, which has seen the drama soar to the top of the global TV Non-English chart.
The show went on to be included in the Non-English TV list for four weeks picking up 142.85 million hours in total.
| Week Period | Hours Viewed(M) | Rank | Week in Top 10 |
|---|---|---|---|
| November 14th, 2021 to November 21st, 2021 | 43,480,000 | 1 | 1 |
| November 21st, 2021 to November 28th, 2021 | 67,520,000 (+55%) | 2 | 2 |
| November 28th, 2021 to December 5th, 2021 | 22,380,000 (-67%) | 3 | 3 |
| December 5th, 2021 to December 12th, 2021 | 9,470,000 (-58%) | 9 | 4 |
Looking at the raw top 10s, the show made it into the top ten lists of 90 different countries. Many countries have seen Hellbound reach the number one spot, and in many others it has featured in the top 3.
If we compare the hourly data, we can see it fell well short of All Of Us Are Dead and Squid Game (both getting renewed for season 2) and tracked just higher than The Silent Sea.
Top 10 comparison – Hellbound vs All Of Us Are Dead vs Squid Game vs The Silent Sea
Compared to a couple of other shows that were released weekly and Squid Game, you can see the show falls very short thus suggesting the show could be at risk of cancelation.
Top 10 comparison – Hellbound vs Business Proposal vs Squid Game vs Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha
What to expect from the second season of Hellbound?
In the final moments of the first season, a shocking revelation that will forever change the world took place when the ashes and remains of Park Jung Ja came together and resurrected the woman.
The doctrine of the New Truth was torn to shreds after multiple eyewitnesses saw what transpired between the baby of Song So Hyun, who despite being given a decree, lived after his parents sacrificed themselves to save their newborn son.
Song So Hyun sought the help of the New Truth – Picture: Climax Studio
Even more, questions will be asked of the New Truth when the victims of the decrees begin to resurrect just like Park Jung Ja. However, if this means we’ll see the resurrection of former New Truth chairman Jung Jin Soo, would he use his newfound resurrection to spread a new gospel?
Park Jung Ja moments before her death – Picture: Climax Studio
With the New Truth and Arrowhead convincing the masses that all those who were given decrees are sinners, with sinners being resurrected from hell itself will likely send society into a complete meltdown as the world attempts to understand “God’s” actions.
Speaking to Variety, the creator of the show acknowledged that with the Webtoon now covered, plans for the second season would be going back to the drawing board saying:
“Because “Hellbound” is based on the original webtoons, my partner Choi Kyu-Seok and I have decided that the story afterwards will be told first through the webtoon and, as for whether we would want to turn that into another live-action series, that’s something that we will need further discussion on. As you know, we have only just released “Hellbound” Season 1 and so we didn’t have any time to discuss that issue with Netflix. So I would say this is something we need further discussion on.”
When could we expect to see Hellbound season 2 on Netflix?
With the series officially renewed we can begin to speculate on when we can expect to see the series return.
Yeon Sang Oh, the director, and creator of the series will be busy over the next year with multiple projects for Netflix, including an adaptation of Parasyte, and a new zombie horror series. This means that filming may not begin until late 2023, or early 2024.
Filming for Hellbound began on September 17th, 2020, and came to an end on January 18th, 2021. So, between the start of filming and the Netflix release date was just over fourteen months. This means if we use fourteen months as a rough estimate, we won’t be seeing Hellbound season 2 on Netflix for quite some time.
Would you like to see a second season of Hellbound on Netflix? Let us know in the comments below!