Pachinko Showrunner Soo Hugh Talks Season 2 and What’s Next for Soonja and Hansu

Change is in the air pinball machine Season 2.

Created by Soo-kyu and adapted from Lee Min-jin’s novel of the same name, this decades-spanning adaptation continues the intertwined stories of Soon Ja-baek (played by Kim Min-ha and Yoon Yeo-jung) and her grandson Solomon (played by Kim Ha). But there are some substantial differences. The season will travel to new locations, elevating characters like Soonja’s sons Noah (Kim Kang-hoon) and Mozasu (Kwon Eun-sung) to higher profiles, and pitting Soonja against her ex-lover Go Han-soo (Lee Min-ho). ) reunited after 14 years of separation. There’s even a new title sequence to lead us into pinball machinethe next chapter.

Mashable talks to Hugh about some of the biggest changes pinball machine What viewers can look forward to in Season 2 includes a trip to the countryside, the new roles of Noah and Moza, and what’s next for Sunja and Han-Soo.

The following interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

Mashable: Big changes coming pinball machine In season two we get a new opening sequence with new cast members, more pachinko parlors, and a new song by The Grass Roots called “Wait a Million Years.” What was the thought process behind changing the order?

Soo Hugh, series executive, screenwriter and producer pinball machine: Shooting these title sequences is always the most fun part of the show. We loved the Season 1 version, but half the cast is no longer on the show. We could re-edit it, but I think it would really hurt the flow of the title sequence. Reshoots also give us an opportunity to bring more actors into the production.

The song we chose, when you listen to the lyrics, you know it’s a love song. They said, “I’d wait a million years.” A lot of the storylines in season two are about, what does it mean to find someone who really understands you and sees you? That became a big part of season two.

In the first season, you expanded on elements of the original novel, with one episode focusing on Koh Hansu’s experience during the 1923 Great Kanto Earthquake.

We do touch on the second generation more in season two, so it’s more of a Noah and Motha story. pinball machine It’s a legend that’s been passed down for generations, so it’s nice to start building their story and adding their perspective. This makes it a challenge in some ways: There are more storylines to balance in season two than there were in season one. We just have so many things to follow.

Kwon Eun-sung and Kim Kang-hoon in “Pachinko”.
Image source: AppleTV+

Focusing on Noah and Motha, this season tells a coming-of-age story about the anxieties of schoolchildren and the struggle to make friends. I’d love to hear more about this.

We wanted to try to create a portrait of these characters from this period. Even though we never see Solomon as a child in school, when you see what happened to Noah you understand that something similar could have happened to Solomon. So this is twofold – this is a common experience across generations.

At the end of the first episode, we see Soon-ja and Han-soo reunited after spending most of the first season apart. Feel.

We knew there was a lot of anticipation for that scene. Season 1 ended with Hansu meeting Sunja for the first time, and now the first episode of season 2 ends with them finally coming face to face. They haven’t seen each other for 14 years. If you were in that situation, what would you say to that person? To Sunja, this was really shocking. So it was important to give it dramatic weight, emotional weight, but also make sure that we didn’t betray who Sunja was. She wasn’t going to throw herself into his arms!

Lee Min Ho and Kim Min Ha in “Pachinko”.
Image source: AppleTV+

Exactly. I know there are a lot of people who want to see these characters together, and a lot of people who don’t. As Sunja and Gohan-soo’s relationship comes to the fore this season, what do you hope viewers take away from this aspect of the story?

Something that I think is really important and that we want to emphasize in season two is that these people don’t even know each other very well. They were only together a handful of times in the first season before she got pregnant and had to decide that she couldn’t live the life he wanted her to have as his mistress. So season two is actually the season where they get to know each other as people.

It wasn’t just the romance that interested me, but the fact that we actually see a friendship begin to develop between these two people. This is more important than the romantic angle: How do these two understand each other? Because they’re both parents now, their shared love for Noah does bring them together in a way that’s stronger than lust or romantic love.

We know from the Season 2 trailer Hansu, Sunja, and Sunja’s family ended up in the countryside, which meant that most of their opportunities to reconnect occurred in the countryside, not the city. How will this new environment affect their rapidly evolving connection?

I love this question because they fell in love in the Korean countryside when Sunja was a teenager, right? So there’s something about the countryside that brings them back home, and there’s a comfort in that. Hansu always said that in some ways he was always looking for home. He lives in this mansion with his Japanese father-in-law, but where he feels most comfortable is with Junko.

pinball machine Season 2 will premiere on Apple TV+ on August 23, with new episodes every Friday.