10 Most Anticipated K-Dramas Of 2025

Like much else coming out of the South Korean entertainment industry, the K-drama scene has risen in popularity across the globe in recent years, carried by the ever-growing Korean Wave and making audiences everywhere tune in every week for swoon-worthy, incredibly emotional stories. So much so that major Western streaming platforms are now firmly in the K-drama game as well, with Netflix, Prime Video and Disney+ all producing or at least hosting their own catalogs of shows.

Global pop relevance, however, is a feat both to achieve and to maintain, which means that the K-drama industry never stops producing new hits — especially considering how K-dramas are usually auto-conclusive stories that run for only one season. 2024 has its best K-dramas, and 2025 now promises to be no different with a good variety of highly anticipated genres and stories that will bring beloved stars back to audiences' screens.

10 Nine Puzzle

Thriller, Suspense, & Unsolved Murders

Nine Puzzle has a story with thriller and crime undertones that follows the main character I-na, who witnessed a murder as a young girl and as a consequence, decides to go into a career as a criminal profiler. Her new line of work will lead her to clash with detective Han-saem, the same man who investigated the murder of I-na's uncle and who has always had his suspicions that I-na was somehow involved with it.

There are a good number of beloved names in the K-drama scene working on Nine Puzzle, both in front and behind the camera. For starters, the story was created by Lee Eun-mi, who also worked on the popular 2021 drama Navillera. Starring as I-na and Han-saem are Kim Da-mi, of Our Beloved Summer and Itaewon Class fame, and Son Suk-ku, who previously worked on A Killer Paradox and canceled-too-soon Sense8.

9 Can This Love Be Translated?

A Classic K-Drama Work Romance

Can This Love Be Translated? comes from a duo of proven K-drama hitmakers, the Hong Sisters, who have penned other staples like Hotel del Luna and Alchemy of Souls. It's not a stretch then to imagine that their latest work will also be as swoon-worthy as every K-drama should be. The story follows Ho-jin, an interpreter, as the title suggests, who starts to work as a personal translator for star actress Mu-hee. Of course, their professional closeness will soon lead them to develop feelings for one another.

The cast includes Kim Seon-ho, who rose to widespread recognition after his role in Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha, as Ho-jin, and previous Alchemy of Souls star Go Youn-jung as Mu-hee. While it still doesn't have an official release date, Can This Love Be Translated? is expected on Netflix in the first half of this year.

8 The Price Of Confession

The Struggle Of Clearing One's Name

The Price of Confession will also be a mystery thriller that revolves around Yun-soo, a seemingly normal art teacher whose entire world is turned upside down when her husband is murdered, and she is arrested as the main suspect in the crime. While in prison, she encounters a mysterious fellow inmate, Mo-eun, who seems to know much more than she lets on. The lives of the two women will become incredibly entangled as Yun-soo works to clear her name.

The cast is led by Jeon Do-yeon, of The Good Wife fame, who stars as the main character Yun-soo. Mo-eun is played by Kim Go-eun, who rose to fame with help from her role in Guardian: The Lonely and Great God. Completing the cast are Park Hae-soo, seen in the first season of Squid Game, as the prosecutor attached to the case; and Jin Sun-kyu, who will instead star as Yun-soo's lawyer.

7 Divorce Insurance

Workplace Mishaps & Divorce Tips

What makes Divorce Insurance one of the most anticipated releases of 2025 is its leading actor, Lee Dong-wook, one of the most well-known working actors of the current K-drama scene who has starred in a wide variety of projects, from Guardian: The Lonely and Great God to Hell Is Other People to Tale of the Nine Tailed.

In Divorce Insurance, he will take on the role of an employee of an insurance company that puts together a new service that is aimed towards divorcees or people who are about to be divorced — something in which his character is quite an expert since he's already been married three times. Of course, the process of developing this new service will bring plenty of comedy and introspection for Lee Dong-wook's still unnamed character and his colleagues, as in every workplace K-Drama.

6 When Life Gives You Tangerines

Slice-Of-Life Period Drama Romance

When Life Gives You Tangerines promises to be a quiet slice-of-life romance set in the 1950s on Jeju, South Korea's largest island just off of its southern coast. The story follows Ae-soon, described by everyone who knows her as spirited, curious, and rebellious, and Gwan-sik, who is instead silent, diligent, and devoted. The drama will chronicle their life together, their trials and tribulations as South Korea changes around them.

When Life Gives You Tangerines' main attraction is probably its lead actress, Lee Ji-eun, known to the public mostly by her stage name IU — one of South Korea's most popular soloists and celebrities. Her previous dramas include hits like Hotel del Luna and Moon Lovers: Scarlet Heart Ryeo. Gwan-sik will instead be played by Park Bo-gum, who has appeared in Reply 1988 and Record of Youth.

5 Slowly And Intensely

The Birth Of South Korean Show Business

Slowly and Intensely can boast two of the biggest actors in the K-drama industry as its leads: Song Hye-kyo, of The Glory and Descendants of the Sun fame, and Gong Yoo, previously seen in Squid Game and Guardian: The Lonely and Great God. It only makes sense for these two massive Hallyu stars to star in a drama that tells the story of South Korean show business, which will in turn grow into the Korean Wave that has taken over global pop culture.

The production of Slowly and Intensely is being kept very much under wraps, with very few details being available to the public. Not much else is known beyond the story's setting somewhere between the 1960s and the 1970s and some reports that principal photography began at the very start of 2025, with the possibility of its release being pushed back to 2026.

4 Way Back Love

Romance With A Touch Of Supernatural

Critics who saw the first few episodes of Way Back Love at Busan International Film Festival in October 2024 gave it rave reviews, which only serves to raise the anticipation surrounding its official release (via South China Morning Post). The story follows Hee-wan, a solitary and reclusive young woman until one day, suddenly, her high-school love Ram-woo appears in front of her — something that would not give her much alarm, except for the fact that Ram-woo has been dead for years.

While the situation Hee-wan and Ram-woo find themselves in could initially be somewhat hilarious and is sure to create its fair share of shenanigans, it will undoubtedly have everyone in the audience sobbing well before the series is over. Kim Min-ha, the lead actress in the internationally acclaimed show Pachinko, stars as Hee-wan, while Gong Myung, who has worked on dramas Be Melodramatic and Lovers of the Red Sky, appears in the role of Ram-woo.

3 Newtopia

The Mandatory Zombie Story

No one does zombie stories quite like the South Korean entertainment industry does — just look at the beloved movie Train to Busan — so, of course, there has to be at least one title belonging to this subgenre among the upcoming K-dramas of 2025. Newtopia follows a young couple, soldier Jae-yoon and office worker Young-joo, who find themselves in Seoul right in the middle of a zombie outbreak. Despite their relationship problems, the two try desperately to get back to each other in the zombie-infested city to at least face this threat together.

Starring as Jae-yoon is Park Jeong-min, whose career consists mostly of movies like Uprising, Decision to Leave, and Deliver Us from Evil rather than television dramas. Additionally, Young-joo will be the face of Jisoo from global sensation girl group BLACKPINK, for whom Newtopia will be her second run at leading a drama after Snowdrop in 2021.

2 Tempest

Mercenaries & Political Assassinations

Tempest is another action thriller that is set to star several Hollywood-based actors as well as South Korean ones, reflecting the international story told by the drama. It all starts in the chaotic aftermath of a political assassination, which sends diplomatic relationships up in flames all over the world. Munju, the former South Korean ambassador to the United States, finds herself entangled in the very core of it all when she becomes mixed up with a mysterious agent, Sanho.

Tempest stars Jun Ji-hyun, one of South Korea's current top leading ladies who has starred in big projects like The Legend of the Blue Sea and My Love from Another Star. Jun will take on the role of Munju, while mercenary San-ho will be played by Gang Dong-won, whose previous work includes movies like Dr. Cheon and Lost Talisman and Peninsula.

1 Squid Game 3

The End Of The Games

The first season of Squid Game was a worldwide phenomenon and its second season only doubled down on that success. It makes sense then that Squid Game season 3 is the most anticipated K-drama of the year. The plot will pick up right where Squid Game season 2 left off with its truly chilling cliffhanger, with players in the middle of a revolt against the guards and the game still a long way from finished.

Nearly everyone audiences saw in the sophomore is set to return, starting with Song Gi-hun, played by Lee Jung-jae, the winner of the previous Squid Game who has now entered the deadly competition again to try and take it down from the inside. Then, of course, there's Gi-hun's antagonist and nemesis, Hwang In-ho, played by Lee Byung-hun, the Front Man who directs the game and who has infiltrated the ranks of the players. The stakes are higher than every, and fans can't wait for this K-drama to return.

Source: South China Morning Post, X