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Director Yeon Sang-ho leaves backstory to the imagination to keep 'Colony' a fast-paced zombie thriller

Published: 26 May. 2026, 18:23 Updated: 26 May. 2026, 20:01

KIM JU-YEON
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Director Yeon Sang-ho on the set of ″Colony″ [SHOWBOX]

It seems the fear that AI could erode humanity is on everyone’s mind — from the Pope to Yeon Sang-ho, the “Train to Busan” (2016) filmmaker back with his latest film, “Colony.”

For Yeon, that concern centers on the idea that AI and social media are pushing people toward more uniform ways of thinking, an anxiety that inspired his fourth film to feature zombies. The undead, once again, serve as symbols of “the latent fears of our time,” as they often do in Yeon’s work in the genre.

“In the earliest stages, I was looking into the principles behind AI and came across the idea of universal thinking — the tendency to return to a central, [standardized] way. That made me wonder what the humanistic opposite of that would be, and reached [the conclusion] that it might be individuality,” Yeon said, in an interview with reporters in central Seoul on Tuesday.

That collective nature becomes destructive when it is overtaken by a single will, Yeon said, drawing a parallel to organisms that survive through group behavior but become vulnerable because of that shared structure.

“Because they share a single nature, if an internal weakness is found, they can all be wiped out at once. To prevent that, they constantly produce mutants. To me, that felt very similar to Korean society, and to human society more broadly," he said.

"I felt that perhaps, nature was offering the answer to an AI-driven world."

A still from ″Colony″ [SHOWBOX]

Jun Ji-hyun as Se-jeong in ″Colony″ [SHOWBOX]

"Colony," released in Korea five days ago, has drawn more than 2 million viewers as of Monday, becoming the fastest film this year to hit the milestone. The film follows a group of survivors — including Jun Ji-hyun's Se-jeong, a biotechnology professor — trapped in a blockaded building as they try to survive a sudden zombie outbreak. The zombies evolve into more sophisticated predators, able to communicate and think collectively through a shared connection.

Yeon says there was much more backstory to the survivors and the main villian, but a lot of it — such as Yeong-cheol, played by Koo Kyo-hwan, as a middle-schooler going to see Se-jeong — was cut as he talked with producers, to help make it a more fast-paced movie enjoyable for thrill-seeking audiences.

"The first draft of "Colony" scenario was 168 pages [...] which would have taken 3 hours and a half to contain."

"I knew ‘Colony’ had to move fast. I shaped the film around that momentum and cut the script down to about 100 pages. I wanted audiences to experience the thrill of being pulled into it," he said.

Koo Kyo-hwan as Yeong-cheol in ″Colony″ [SHOWBOX]

Ji Chang-wook, center, as Hyeon-seok in ″Colony″ [SHOWBOX]

Yeon, who also co-wrote the screenplay, said the pace "didn't allow to dig deeply into each character's backstory," which was was why he gave the survivors distinctive, unconventional dynamics, including Se-jeong’s ex-husband, played by Go Soo, and a high school bully and her former victim.

“I thought audiences would be able to naturally imagine their stories for themselves," he said.

The movie ends — no spoilers here — in a way that had viewers wondering if there would be a sequel. Yeon said a companion book explaining the film’s setting and characters is in the works, along with a game.

"There's something I had dreamed about for a very long time. The content in film aren't just limited to movies anymore. In Japan, for example, comics are adapted into animated series. [The stories] are expanded in ways that can be enjoyed in multiple ways."

Yeon Sang-ho, the director of ″Colony,″ ″Train to Busan″ (2016), ″Hellbound″ (2021) and ″The Ugly″ (2025) [SHOWBOX]

For Yeon, whose “Train to Busan,” along with its animated prequel “Seoul Station” (2016) and sequel “Peninsula” (2020) helped establish zombie films as blockbuster fare in Korea, there is “still so much room to keep reinventing zombies.”

"I'm like the Mun Ik-jeom of Korean zombie films," he jokingly said, in reference to a Goryeo Dynasty (918-1392) scholar who first brought cotton to Korea.

"Since ‘Train to Busan,’ there has definitely been a growing global expectation for Korean zombie films. That is something I’m very proud of, and I hope it continues," he said.

If “Train to Busan” leaned on the human drama of a father-daughter relationship, “Colony” was built around “the extreme game-like elements of an escape room,” Yeon said. That idea shaped the film’s sharp contrast between zombies and humans: One side evolves, while the other communicates.

A still from ″Colony″ [SHOWBOX]

As to his next work, which Yeon says could come out next year, the director described it as one that was inspired "different" from his previous projects, beginning with its production process.

“It's a film made in a distinctive way, almost like making an indie animation,” he said, adding that it was “born from that desire.”

"It's a piece that I think viewers might say, 'Why did he make it?'"

“Colony” will be released globally, including in the United States through Well Go USA on Aug. 28.