Superhero saga to dating show: How Hollywood influence is reshaping Korean Entertainment
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Hollywood's influence on South Korean entertainment industry Photograph: (X)
Superhero dramas and dating-show formats feel borrowed straight from American reality TV. But the question is whether K-drama is changing and how much of its identity survives the crossover. Read to know more.
Korean entertainment is expanding beyond the traditional K-drama template, with superhero stories, fantasy, high-concept thrillers and reality dating shows becoming increasingly prominent. Netflix's Korean slate now spans scripted dramas, films and unscripted formats. From superheroes and high-concept action to dating experiments and reality competitions, Korean entertainment is entering an increasingly global phase. However, in recent years, more Western influence is visible, like Wonderfools, Moving or Single's Inferno. But how long is this influence going to last?
South Korean shows with Western influence
With the superhero genre as the core, shows like Moving, which is one of the examples embracing the superhero genre while giving it a distinctly Korean emotional core. The series follows teenagers with superpowers and their parents, combining action and supernatural abilities with family relationships, trauma and sacrifice.
The recent show Wonderfools exhibits a heavy western narrative, mostly drawing inspiration from classic Marvel comic books and Stan Lee's iconic superhero archetypes. It blends these concepts with late-90s Hollywood sci-fi tropes while grounding them in a nostalgic, turn-of-the-century Korean setting. Rather than traditional stoic heroes, the protagonists form a clumsy team of "official misfits". This closely mirrors the dynamic of modern Western superhero properties like Guardians of the Galaxy. Mimicking classic Western origin stories like The Avengers or Spider-Man, the main characters are ordinary, flawed societal outcasts. They mistakenly acquire their powers via industrial runoff from a mad scientist’s lab in a local garbage dump.
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A structural choice long credited as one reason they hold global audiences better than open-ended US network shows. But successes like dating show Single's Inferno running five seasons signal that some formats, particularly in the unscripted space, are bending toward the Western model of a returning, open-ended franchise.
There's also a case of the influence flowing both ways rather than in one direction only. A 2026 series adaptation of Untold Scandal, titled The Scandal, itself originally a 2003 Korean film based on the French novel Les Liaisons Dangereuses, shows Korean content has always been in conversation with Western source material, long before streaming-era co-productions accelerated the exchange.
The western influence on the South Korean entertainment industry – organic or strategic shift?
Korean entertainment has itself become a major influence on global pop culture. The success of K-content has encouraged international productions to work with Korean creators and talent, while Korean actors, musicians and filmmakers increasingly operate across borders.
Korean entertainment has historically absorbed international influences and reshaped them through local storytelling traditions. The result is often a hybrid: a familiar global genre presented through Korean characters, social realities and emotional storytelling. That is why a Korean superhero story can feel different from a Marvel-style blockbuster, while a Korean dating show can operate differently from its Western counterparts.
The tension underneath all of this is whether Hollywood-style genre and format experimentation dilutes what made K-dramas and Korean unscripted shows stand out globally in the first place, or whether it's simply evolution — proof that Korean producers can absorb Western structures without losing the emotional intimacy and tight, complete storytelling that built their fanbase.
Either way, the shows arriving over the next few years, spanning superhero ensembles, elimination-style dating formats, and historical adaptations aimed squarely at international taste, suggest Korean content is no longer just being consumed by the West. It's increasingly being shaped by it.
