Netflix Greenlights K-Pop Drama ‘Variety’ Starring Son Ye-jin and Jo Yu-ri

Netflix is adding another splashy series to its Korean originals slate with Variety , a K-pop industry drama starring Crash Landing on You headliner Son Ye-jin and rising actor-idol Jo Yu-ri, best known for her breakout turn in Squid Game Seasons 2 and 3.

The upcoming series comes from director Kim Yong-hoon, the filmmaker behind Mask Girl , one of Netflix's surprise Korean hits of 2023. The black comedy thriller spent four consecutive weeks on the streamer's Global Top 10 Non-English TV list, peaking at No. 1 in its second week.

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Variety marks a stylistic shift for Kim. He'll be trading in the gritty neo-noir crime world of his breakthrough, Beasts Clawing at Straws , for the high-gloss, high-pressure domain of K-pop super-stardom. The series will explore the tensions, ambitions and fraught relationships between industry power players, the stars and their obsessive fandoms.

From left: Jo Yu-ri, Kim Yong-hoon and Son Ye-jin at a Netflix table read for Variety .

Son stars as Se-eun, a top entertainment executive willing to risk everything to revive the faltering idol group she helped create. Variety adds to a busy and exciting lineup of projects for the veteran actress, including the upcoming Netflix period drama Scandals and Park Chan-wook's much-anticipated feature No Other Choice. 

Jo co-stars in Variety as Seung-hui, a fan whose fierce devotion to her favorite idol takes her down a dangerous path. It's an amusing casting for the rising actress, given her prior career as a K-pop star and fan-favorite member of Korean–Japanese girl group Iz*One. 

Variety is being produced by CJ ENM Studios and UNU, continuing Netflix's longstanding status as one of the Korean content creators' top commissioners.

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