2023’s Kill Boksoon is getting the “expanded universe” treatment with Mantis, an upcoming spin-off that’s being helmed by newcomer Lee Tae-Seong, with co-writing writing help from Byun Sung-hyun (The Merciless), the writer and director of the original.
Mantis is set in the same contract killer world as Kill Boksoon. While the latter explores the story of Gil Bok-soon struggling to balance her life as a single mother and assassin, Mantis shifts the spotlight to a contract killer named Mantis (Yim Si-Wan, Emergency Declaration), a character that was briefly mentioned by Kill Boksoon‘s Cha Min-kyu (Sul Kyung-Gu) to “have gone on a vacation,” and this spinoff will trace Mantis’ return to the industry in search of new opportunities (via Deadline).
The film also stars Park Gyu-Young (Wretches), Jo Woo-Jin (Alienoid: Return to the Future) and a possible appearance by Jeon Do-yeon (Beasts Clawing at Straws), who’ll be reprising her character from the original.
Look out for Mantis on Netflix next year. Until then, here’s a couple of stills from it:
Not to be confused with that short-lived TV show from the 90’s. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/M.A.N.T.I.S.