The WONDERfools

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Directed by Yoo In-sik and written by Huh Dah-joong, The WONDERfools is an eight-episode Netflix comedy action series about what happens when Eun Chae-ni, the neighborhood trainwreck who has just been given a terminal diagnosis, and her neighbors suddenly gain superpowers in the fictional city of Haeseong as the end of 1999 approaches.

Netflix released all eight episodes at once at 5 p.m. Korean time on May 15, 2026. When the production was confirmed in November 2024, the series carried the Korean title Deo Wondeopulseu; it was released in Korea as Wondeopulseu, and its English title is The WONDERfools. At the launch press conference, Yoo explained the title as meaning "a story about fools who are not at all ready to be wonderful." The series is set in 1999, when end-of-the-millennium doomsday theories were spreading, and the Netflix Korea page rates it 15+.

It was directed by Yoo In-sik, who made the Dr. Romantic series and Extraordinary Attorney Woo, and written by Huh Dah-joong, who worked on the adaptation of the film Extreme Job. Kang Eun-kyung, writer of Dr. Romantic and Gyeongseong Creature, served as creator; the series was produced by Nangmancrew and Kakao Entertainment and co-produced by Fantagio. Yoo said he had loved the superhero genre since he was a child and that his heart raced when he first read Huh's original concept. Park Eun-bin said she first heard about the project in front of the gimbap restaurant set while filming Extraordinary Attorney Woo. Choi Dae-hoon and Im Seong-jae, who also appeared in that series, came on board as well, reuniting Yoo with members of the Extraordinary Attorney Woo cast. Yoo said that because 1999 does not look dramatically different from today, the art department put a lot of effort into details such as graffiti on walls and Y2K emergency kits in supermarkets.

Park Eun-bin plays Eun Chae-ni, whose grandmother owns Keunson Restaurant and who has had a heart condition since childhood, and Cha Eun-woo plays Lee Un-jeong, a specially hired civil servant who sticks so rigidly to rules and principles that people inside city hall find him stifling, but who digs into a string of disappearances in Haeseong outside of it. Choi Dae-hoon plays Son Gyeong-hun, who files a stream of complaints with city hall after being laid off during the Asian financial crisis, and Im Seong-jae plays Kang Ro-bin, an employee at Keunson Restaurant and Chae-ni's friend. Kim Hae-sook plays Chae-ni's grandmother Kim Jeon-bok, the owner of Keunson Restaurant, and Son Hyun-joo also appears as Ha Won-do. In episode 1, "Every Life Comes With a Surprise Twist," Chae-ni, who has no money and has just been given a terminal diagnosis, hatches a kidnapping plan with two clumsy accomplices. In episode 2, "Secrets Are Meant To Be Kept," Chae-ni, Gyeong-hun and Ro-bin develop superpowers, and Un-jeong, growing suspicious of them, puts Chae-ni's ability to the test.

Yoo said he hoped the series would deliver the kind of fun you get on an amusement park ride, where from the moment you buckle your seat belt until the end you never want to leave your seat, and then leave a little warmth behind. Park described Chae-ni as having a simpler way of thinking than any character she had played before. In an interview after the release, she recalled that the teleportation scenes took a great deal of time and effort, because she had to vanish out of frame and then, months later, reappear in a different location in a way that matched the previous shot exactly, and that she did wire work every day. In Netflix's Top 10, the series ranked No. 1 among the Top 10 series in Korea and No. 6 in the global non-English TV category in its first chart week (May 11–17), which included its first three days, with 2.7 million views (hours viewed divided by the total runtime), and in the following chart week of May 18–24, it placed second in the non-English TV category with 7.9 million views and made the Top 10 in 64 countries.

See alsoExtraordinary Attorney Woo 2022Dr. Romantic 2016Gyeongseong Creature 2023

Drama Lineup editors · Fact-checked against: isplus.com, netflix.com, news.mtn.co.kr, wikitree.co.kr, about.netflix.com, v.daum.net, sports.khan.co.kr, nocutnews.co.kr, tenasia.co.kr, tvreport.co.kr · 2026-10-18