10 Million-Viewer Film "Exhuma" Spin-Off Webtoon "Maengjong" to Begin Serializing on Naver Webtoon at 10 p.m. on the 30th

Naver Webtoon said on the 29th that it will release the new horror and occult series "Maengjong" on the 30th and begin serializing it.

The new work "Maengjong" is a spin-off (derivative) webtoon of the Korean occult film "Exhuma," which opened in 2024 and drew more than 11.91 million viewers, becoming the first Korean occult film to surpass 10 million viewers. Centered on the high school years of the shaman Hwarim (played by Kim Go-eun) and Bonggil (played by Lee Do-hyun), who left a strong impression in the film, it depicts how the two first crossed paths and the prequel story hidden before the movie. "Maengjong" will be unveiled exclusively through Naver Webtoon at 10 p.m. on the 30th of this month.

The title of the work, "Maengjong" (盲從), means "to follow unconditionally without judging what is right or wrong." The story begins when Bonggil, a student from the same school, appears before Hwarim, a high school student who has been living in hiding after a bizarre incident tied to the snake god "Jin" in childhood. Haemuri, the writer who previously showed dense psychological depictions in the prior work "Olgaemi," will take charge of writing the next installment, and the Korean-style occult universe built by the film "Exhuma" is set to be expanded anew with the rules of a vertical-scroll webtoon.

On the new attempt to adapt a blockbuster film into a webtoon, both sides—platform and production company—expressed high expectations. Lee Hyun-jung, executive officer of the film business division at ShoBox, the distributor of "Exhuma," said, "It is meaningful that the movie's story will expand as it meets a new grammar in the form of webtoon." He added, "We expect it to become a fresh experience for both film fans and webtoon readers." Lee Jeong-geun, Korea webtoon content leader at Naver Webtoon, also said, "Ahead of the full summer season, with the tense direction uniquely characteristic of writer Haemuri added, it will be a welcome work for genre fans," adding that it will be well received.