(Credits: Youn Yuh-jung)

Following the success of the first season, it has been announced that Academy-Award winner Youn Yuh-Jung will be starring in the second season of Beef. Netflix announced that the South Korean actor will be joining the existing cast on October 24th, with her character described as the owner of a Korean country club within an elitist social circle.

The first season of the show starred Ali Wong and Steven Yeun as two strangers who become involved in a road rage incident that wreaks havoc on their lives. The second season will follow a similar storyline that spans over eight episodes, with a young couple witnessing an argument between a wealthy man and his partner at a country club, with chaos then ensuing.

Along with Youn, Oscar Isaac, Carey Mulligan, Charles Melton and Cailee Spaeny are also set to be joining the cast, with Wong and Yeun remaining involved in the production as executive producers and the season one director Lee Sung-jin returning to direct.

Youn has starred in many of Korea’s most loved films and television shows, sky-rocketing to fame after winning the prestigious Blue Dragon Award for best actress after her performance in Woman of Fire. After this, she immigrated to the United States before moving back to Korea a decade later, returning to the screen in A Good Lawyer’s Wife, The Taste of Money and The Bacchus Lady, as well as starring in over 80 tv shows. She later became the first Korean woman to receive the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role in Minari, an A24 drama about the journey of one Korean American family and their pursuit of the american dream, directed by Lee Isaac Chung.

Details on the characters played by Isaac, Mulligan, Melton and Spaeny are not yet confirmed. However, with the show mostly being set in the world of a high-society country club, it’s safe to imagine that they will play some of the exclusive members. Isaac has recently starred in a number of TV shows with HBO that includes Moon Knight and Scenes of a Marriage.

Mulligan is joining after a streak of Academy-Award nominated films, including Maestro, She Said and Promising Young Woman. Her last appearance in a TV show was in 2019 for Collateral, which was also produced by Netflix.

Melton and Spaeny are both rising stars and newcomers to the industry, with Melton being nominated for an Academy Award for his performance in May December, starring alongside Julienne Moore and Natalie Portman. Speany has had an impressive number of hits after her breakout role in Priscilla, shortly following the film’s success with Civil War, Alien: Romulus, and an upcoming part in the Knives Out series. 

Since the premier of the first season, the show has been met with critical acclaim, winning five Emmy awards for Outstanding Limited Series, Outstanding Writing and Outstanding Lead Actor. While updates on the casting for the show have been shared, the release date has not yet been confirmed, but it is suspected that it will return to our screens in 2025.