Netflix’s latest apocalyptic zombie high school series All Of Us Are Dead has amassed unimaginable popularity on the streamer. Adapted from Joo Dong-geun’s 130-episode webtoon, Now At Our School, the series director, Lee Jae-gyu has addressed the graphic scenes of sexual violence, apologising for them while also discussing plans for a second season.
Starring Yoon Chan-Young, Cho Yi-hyun, Park Ji-hoo, Lomon and others, the series is set in Hyosan High School where a mysterious virus leads to a massive zombie outbreak. The high schoolers, alienated from the outside world, are compelled to put up a brave fight to save themselves from the monsters’ vicious clutches.
Grotesque yet heartbreaking, the series touches upon a variety of important and dark themes that plague contemporary East Asian society, namely bullying, peer pressure, sexual assault, revenge porn, suicide, unbearable academic levity and more.
Recently, Netflix was heavily criticised along with the series for omitting trigger warnings for the graphic sexual violence that is portrayed in the show where a school outcast, Eunji is mercilessly bullied by her perpetrators before being sexually assaulted. The bullies force another student to record the whole ordeal and threaten Eunji with the consequences.
While talking about the various “tragedies” that loom large over the society, Lee clarified, “Our intention for showing such provocative scenes was not to just simply show those scenes to gain the attention of the viewers.” He continued, “I wanted people to see how cruel the bullies, the perpetrators, were to her.”
However, he apologised for the trauma the scenes might have caused to the viewers by saying, “As a director, I apologise if the scenes were depicted as being too excessive than what I intended and also apologise for giving discomfort to anyone.” While talking about the possibility of a second season, he has revealed that the series was written with an additional season in mind.
He revealed how he has “intentionally” left enough loopholes that will lead to the expansion of the All of Us Are Dead universe.
The introduction of the half-human half-zombie seems to be one such plot point as the director elaborated, “many directions, settings and scenes were intentionally produced to expand the story into an additional season, including the introduction of the new races of zombies.”
He said that while the “first season can be seen as having presented humanity‘s survival”, the upcoming season would probably focus on the “survival of zombies”.
Watch All Of Us Are Dead on Netflix now.
