When you tune in to watch Butterfly, Prime Video's forthcoming spy thriller, you'll see a very familiar face: Park Hae-Soo, who was so memorable in the first season of Squid Game, is joining the cast alongside Kim Tae-hee and Nayoon Kim as recurring characters in the six-episode show.
Butterfly is based on the graphic novel of the same name and has the potential to be one of the best Prime Video series if the comic is anything to go by. It follows David Jung (played by Daniel Dae Kim), a former US intelligence operative who – surprise! – is enigmatic, unpredictable and doesn't always play by the rules.
His life in South Korea is turned upside down when, as the official synopsis puts it, "the consequences of an impossible decision from his past come back to haunt him" and he finds himself being hunted by the sociopathic young agent Rebecca (Reina Hardesty), who is rather keen on killing him.
Star power helps Butterfly soar
As Variety points out, Park Hae-soo is a big star not just from Squid Game – in which he played Sang Woo – but also Money Heist: Korea, Prison Playbook and Ruthless Operation. And his newly announced co-stars are pretty stellar too: Kim Tae-hee is the star of multiple movies and hit shows including her breakout hit, Stairway to Heaven, while child actor Nayoon Kim has made quite the name for herself from appearances in South Korean dramas, adverts and modelling gigs.
As for the show itself, Prime Video is keeping a lot of the details under wraps but we do know that the show isn't just about spy vs spy action. It also explores "complex family dynamics", and the source novel has a noir-ish visual style that's been compared to artists such as Grant Morrison.
Interestingly the protagonist in the first graphic novel is Rebecca the hunter, not David the hunted, so it'll be interesting to see whether Reina Hardesty's role is as fully rounded as she is in the original story. Writing in Broken Frontier, Jason Wilkins described Butterfly as "an excellent diversion from the schlock and spectacle of mainstream femmes fatales." If the show retains the same spirit, this could turn out to be something special.
