Han Suk-kyu Thriller “Speaking Dead” Breaks Through Controversy and Is Released in the Second Half for the First Time in Five Years

Master actor Han Suk-kyu transforms into a forensic pathologist in the mystery thriller drama Speaking Dead, finally breaking a long silence of no less than five years.

An overwhelming comeback in an eight-episode format that cleared the wave of controversy—while the world is already paying attention

Producer SLL Central has confirmed the surprise release of Speaking Dead in the coming second half. The drama centers on the shocking confession of forensic pathologist Jang Jae-wook (Han Suk-kyu), who is identified as a suspect in an unprecedented downtown terror case, and then relentlessly digs into the brutal truth that has been hidden for more than 10 years in this mystery thriller. Led by Han Suk-kyu, the series also brings together top-tier acting talent en masse, including Jung Yu-mi, Yeom Hye-ran, Lee Hee-jun, and Kim Jun-han, pushing the show’s intensity to its peak. Specific broadcast channels and timing are in the final coordination stage.

The work was originally planned as a 16-episode, large-scale project titled “Until Morning Comes”, based on the detective novel “A Long Night That’s Hard to Wake Up From” by Chinese writer Zi Jin-tian. But in 2021, a critical wave of public opinion in local online communities hit after the claim that the original story romanticized the Chinese Communist Party. At that point, filming had already been completed up to eight episodes, and the project suffered the painful disruption of being halted outright before full production. Afterwards, the production team carried out a painstaking re-edit that removed extra narrative elements from the existing footage and condensed the story into a total of eight episodes. The result was reborn under the weighty new title Speaking Dead, and now stands before the public for the first time in five years.

The artistic achievement of the revived production has already been proven on the global stage. It made a strong showing with consecutive invitations to the 30th Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival (BIFAN) Fantascape section, which opened on the second, and the competitive division of the 2nd Italy Global Series Festival (IGSF 2026), which kicked off on the third. Meanwhile, ahead of a full-scale broadcast in the second half, the production company plans to present the core portion of the work to the public for the first time through the official BIFAN screening event on the 11th and showcase the essence of a well-made thriller.