Everything We Know About A Potential Snowdrop Season 2

You’d think that only bad could come from a blood-soaked man running into a young woman’s dorm room, but that’s not the case in Disney+’s new K-drama Snowdrop. Set in 1987, the show centers around North Korean spy Lim Soo-ho (Jung Hae-in) and South Korean university student Eun Yeong-ro (Jisoo). Thinking that Soo-ho is a pro-democracy activist, Yeong-ro agrees to hide him from his pursuers and the two soon fall in love. When she realizes the truth, it sets the couple on a mad dash to get him back to North Korea undetected as antagonists on both sides pursue them.

The series premiered on the South Korean network JTBC in December and hit Disney+ globally on Dec. 9. So far, neither company has announced plans for a second season, but according to Soompi, Snowdrop had steady ratings throughout its runtime in Korea. Also working in favor of a renewal is the cast: star Jisoo is a member of the wildly popular K-pop group Blackpink, which currently nets a total of more than 13.5 million monthly listeners on Spotify and has ranked on Forbes’ Korea’s list of most powerful celebrities for three years in a row. Suffice it to say, she has a built-in fandom.

However, the prospects of a second season could be complicated by the controversy surrounding Snowdrop. Many Korean viewers have taken issue with the way the series distorts the country’s history, centering a North Korean character in a story about a dark chapter in South Korea’s past. The show takes place amid the democratic protests of 1987 — known as the June Democratic Struggle — during which time South Korean protesters were violently killed. As the Korea Herald points out, these deaths were often falsely justified by saying the activists were North Korean spies — a narrative conservatives in the country continue to push. Critics have argued that promoting a story like this on a global platform — to viewers who likely don’t know the actual context and history — is offensive and damaging.

Leading up to Snowdrop’s premiere, a petition to stop JTBC from airing the series received 267,000 signatures in one day, and several brands also withdrew their sponsorships. However, JTBC has pushed back against the controversy, arguing that Snowdrop is fictional and that there have been a number of falsehoods spread about the show since its synopsis was leaked and “maliciously edited.” They even went as far as to say they would be “taking strict action” against those disseminating “unfounded criticisms.”

It remains unclear how Snowdrop will be received now that it’s on Disney+, and whether or not the controversy will affect its chances at a renewal — or if more episodes were in the cards to begin with (spoilers ahead). At the end of Season 1, Soo-ho sacrifices himself to protect Yeong-ro, so a second season would have to follow her journey without him. Because the series is new and doesn’t yet have a firm release schedule, it’s difficult to predict when potential new episodes would arrive, but this post will be updated as more information becomes available.

Don’t have Disney+ yet? Sign up here.