Pictures provided by Netflix
Netflix has officially greenlit the second season of BEEF, which follows what was originally supposed to be a limited series starring Steven Yuen and Ali Wong. Netflix has confirmed four stars for the new season and provided new details on what we can expect when the show eventually returns.
Oscar Isaac, Carey Mulligan, Charles Melton, and Cailee Spaeny are headlining the cast, which has been rumored for the parts over the summer. Deadline revealed in June that Isaac and Mulligan were in talks for roles, while other sources indicated Melton and Spaeny were attached in July. Netflix confirmed on October 23rd that Yuh-Jung Youn (Pachinko, Minari) had joined the cast.
Isaac returns to Netflix following roles in Triple Frontier and co-distributed titles like Operation Finale and Annihilation. He’s also set to headline Guillermo Del Toro’s Frankenstein, due for release in 2025. Mulligan recently starred alongside Adam Sandler in Spaceman and was previously featured in the critically acclaimed Netflix film The Dig. Melton also is no stranger to Netflix, having co-starred in last year’s May December. Meanwhile, Spaeny is part of a huge ensemble cast for 2025’s Knives Out 3 (also known as Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery).
Netflix didn’t confirm two other names previously mentioned for roles in the new season: Jake Gyllenhaal and Anne Hathaway.
The new season is set to be eight episodes long, each 30 minutes long. Netflix is referring to the second season as a limited series and has provided the following synopsis:
“A young couple witnesses an alarming fight between their boss and his wife, triggering chess moves of favors and coercion in the elitist world of a country club and its Korean billionaire owner.”
There is no word on when the series will begin filming, although earlier reporting from ProductionWeekly suggested that filming could’ve gotten underway in August 2024, although that didn’t materialize. Other production sources suggest the new season is getting underway in early Q1 20525 and will run through Q2, with the series set to split filming between Los Angeles, California, and South Korea.
Lee Sung Jin notably signed an overall deal with Netflix in November 2023 that would span multiple years and encompass both BEEF and any additional film and TV projects the creator comes up with.
Steven Yeun, Ali Wong, Anna Ouyang Moench, Ethan Kuperberg, and Jake Schreier are executive producers on season 2. Jonnie Park is a staff writer on season 2 with Niko Gutierrez-Kovner as story editor. Miriam Battye is a co-producer while Sabrina Mahfouz is a producer.
Season 1 of Beef racked up eight Primetime Emmys and spent five weeks in the Netflix global top 10s, picking up 186,540,000 viewing hours globally, equating to 33.7M views. At the Emmys, Lee Jung Sin hinted at the future of Beef on Netflix:
“I feel like there are so many paths. It could stay limited, it was a very close-ended story for sure. But if Netflix wanted to continue, it could also be an anthology. It could be many things. It’s up to the great algorithm. We’re all waiting to hear.”
Photo credits: Brian Bowen Smith, Dani Brubaker, Sam Jones, and Kirra Cheers.
