Pachinko Showrunner Sue Hughes Talks Season 2 and What’s Next for Soon-Ja and Hans

Signs of change pachinko Season 2.

Soo Hyu’s decades-old film adaptation of Min Jin Lee’s novel of the same name continues to tell the intertwining story of Baek Soon-ja (Kim Min-ha, Yoon Yeo-jeong) and her grandson Solomon (Jin Ha). But there are some big differences. This season heads to a new setting, characters like Soon-ja’s son Noah (Kim Kang-hoon) and Mo-za-soo (Kwon Eun-sung) gain more prominence, and Soon-ja is reunited with her ex-boyfriend Go Han-soo (Lee Min-ho) for the first time in 14 years. There’s also a new title scene, pachinkoThe next chapter.

Mashable spoke with Hugh about some of the big changes. pachinko In season two, viewers can look forward to a trip to the countryside, new roles for Noah and Mozas, and what’s next for Sunja and Hans.

The following interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

Mashable: Big changes are coming pachinko Season 2 features a new title sequence with new actors, more pachinko parlours and a new song by The Grass Roots, “Wait a Million Years.” What was the thinking behind changing the sequence?

Sue Hughes, showrunner, writer, producer pachinko: Filming the title sequence has always been the most fun part of the show. I love the version from Season 1, but half of the actors are no longer on the show. We could have re-edited it, but I think it would have really messed up the flow of the title sequence. Doing it over also gave us the opportunity to bring more actors into the production.

If you listen to the lyrics of the song that we chose, you know it’s a love song. The lyrics say, “I’d wait a million years.” A lot of the storyline in season two is about what it means to find someone who really understands you and sees you. That became a big part of season two.

In Season 1, you expanded on elements from the original work, including an episode focusing on Go Han-soo’s experiences during the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923. What aspects of the original work are you most excited to expand on or explore in Season 2?

Season 2 will focus more on the second generation, so there will be more of Noah and Mozas’ story. pachinko This is a multigenerational story, so it’s been fun to start building out their story and adding their perspectives. That’s also been a challenge in some ways. We have a lot more story lines to balance in Season 2 than we did in Season 1. We had to figure out how to weave all those stories together in a clever way without it suddenly feeling like there’s too much to keep track of.

Kwon Eun-sung and Kim Kang-hoon from “Pachinko.”
Credit: AppleTV+

This season will focus on Noah and Mozas and will be a coming-of-age story about school anxieties and the struggles of making friends. I’d love to hear more about that.

We’re trying to portray what it was like for these characters to be in this time period. We never see Solomon go to school as a child, but when we see what happens to Noah, we know something similar would have happened to Solomon. So there’s a duality, a shared generational experience.

The end of episode 1 sees Soon-ja and Han-soo reunite after being separated for most of Season 1. Can you talk about how you crafted this reunion and what it was like bringing these two characters back together?

We knew there was a lot of anticipation surrounding that scene. Season 1 ended with Han-soo meeting Soon-ja for the first time, and the first episode of Season 2 ends with them finally confronting each other. They haven’t seen each other for 14 years. What would you say to someone if you were in that situation? For Soon-ja, it would be such a shock. So it was important to give it that dramatic weight, that emotional weight, but at the same time not betray who Soon-ja is as a person. She doesn’t just jump into his arms!

Lee Min-ho and Kim Min-ha in “Pachinko.”
Credit: AppleTV+

Absolutely. I know some people want to see those two together and many don’t. The relationship between Seung-ja and Han-soo comes to the forefront this season. What do you hope viewers take away or learn from this side of the story?

What I think is really important, and what I want to emphasize in Season 2, is that these two don’t know each other that well. In Season 1, they were together just a few times before she got pregnant and he decided that she couldn’t have the life he wanted as his lover. So Season 2 is really about them getting to know each other as people.

What interests me is not so much the romance, but the friendship that begins to blossom between these two. This is even more than the idea of ​​romance. How do these two understand each other? Now that they’re both parents, their shared love for Noah binds them together in a way that’s stronger than simple lust or romantic feelings.

As seen in the Season 2 trailer When Hans, Soonja and her family move to the countryside, their best chance of reuniting comes in the countryside rather than in the city. How will their new environment affect their budding bond?

I love this question. Soon-ja fell in love with the Korean countryside as a teenager, right? So there’s something about the countryside that reminds her of home, and there’s a comfort there. Han-soo always says that he’s always searching for where home is, in a way. He lives in a big mansion with his Japanese stepfather, but he still feels most comfortable with Soon-ja.

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