Yeon Sang-ho is working on a new zombie movie through which he can finally redeem the underwhelming sequel to Train to Busan. The zombie genre is full of hits and misses both in film and TV, but in 2016, Yeon Sang-ho brought one of the biggest successes of the genre with Train to Busan. The film was a critical and commercial success, spawning a movie series with a prequel, a sequel, and an American remake that is currently trapped in development hell.
Train to Busan follows Seok-woo (Gong Yoo), a workaholic and divorced father taking his estranged daughter, Su-an (Kim Su-an), to Busan so she can spend her birthday with her. Once on the train, they learn about the sudden break of a zombie apocalypse, and, unfortunately, one of the pᴀssengers is infected. What follows is the rest of the pᴀssengers’ desperate efforts to survive and get to Busan, the closest safe zone. Now, five years after Train to Busan’s sequel, Peninsula, Yeon Sang-ho is working on a new zombie movie, Gunche, which won’t be a stranger from the world of Train to Busan.
Gunche Will Be Set In Yeon Sang-ho’s Train To Busan Universe
Gunche Is A New Addition To The Train To Busan Universe
The last entry in the Train to Busan universe was the sequel Peninsula, in 2020, and since then, Yeon Sang-ho has moved on to other projects. Yeon has one movie, Revelations, released in 2025, and he’s now working on another zombie movie that’s taking him back to the world of Train to Busan. In March 2025, it was reported that Yeon’s next project is Gunche, with Jun Ji-hyun, Ji Chang-wook, and Koo Kyo-hwan already signed to be part of the cast. At the time of writing, there’s no word on what Gunche’s English тιтle will be.
“Gunche” in Korean means colony in a biological context.
The announcement includes the confirmation of Gunche being part of the Train to Busan saga, with distributor Showbox describing the project as the “culmination” of Yeon’s universe that began with Train to Busan and continued with Peninsula. However, it’s unclear if Gunche is a direct sequel to Train to Busan, Peninsula, or even Seoul Station, in which case it would be set between this and Train to Busan. Gunche could also be a standalone sequel, meaning it would expand this universe without continuing where the previous movies left off.
Gunche Must Be A Better Sequel To Train To Busan Than Peninsula
Peninsula Completely Failed As A Sequel To Train To Busan
As mentioned above, Train to Busan got a continuation four years after its release. тιтled Peninsula and also directed by Yeon Sang-ho, the movie is a standalone sequel to Train to Busan, so none of the surviving characters are in it. Peninsula is set after Train to Busan, with South Korea now taken over by zombies. Four years later, former soldier Jung-seok (Gang Dong-won), who years before let his sister be bitten by zombies after she refused to leave her infected son, is recruited along with two others by Chinese mobsters to retrieve a truck with millions of dollars in South Korea.
Peninsula has a 55% critics’ score on Rotten Tomatoes, with critics calling it disappointing and generic, and finding that it forgot everything that made Train to Busan so good.
However, the zombies aren’t the only obstacle they have to face during this mission, as others are also interested in taking the money at any cost. Peninsula performed well at the box office, grossing $42.7 million against a $16 million budget, but it didn’t really match the quality and success of Train to Busan. Peninsula has a 55% critics’ score on Rotten Tomatoes, with critics calling it disappointing and generic, and finding that it forgot everything that made Train to Busan so good – however, most agreed that fans of Train to Busan would find Peninsula entertaining, at least.
General audiences were a bit more welcoming of Peninsula, giving it a 76% popcornmeter on Rotten Tomatoes, yet still not enough to match Train to Busan (which has a 95% critics score and an 89% popcornmeter). Viewers liked the combination of a more fast-paced action movie with a zombie setting but admitted that it didn’t capture the essence, greatness, and horror factor of Train to Busan. Whether Gunche is a direct sequel to the previous movies or a standalone one, it must learn from Peninsula’s mistakes and make up for its disappointment as a Train to Busan movie.
At Least Train To Busan’s Prequel Movie Was A Great Addition To The Franchise
Seoul Station Benefited The Train To Busan Universe
Where Peninsula failed, Seoul Station had already succeeded. Just a couple of months after Train to Busan was released, the animated prequel Seoul Station was released, written and directed by Yeon Sang-ho. Seoul Station explores the beginning of the zombie epidemic seen in Train to Busan, and for that, it follows three characters: a young Sєx worker called Hye-sun, her father Suk-gyu, and her boyfriend Ki-woong. The latter two are trying to find Hye-sun as the zombie epidemic quickly rises, with some dark secrets about all of them being revealed in the process.
Seoul Station was a critical and commercial success, and it managed to replicate what made Train to Busan so good: a personal story amid the suspense and horror of the zombie epidemic. Gunche is already an exciting project simply because it’s part of the world of Train to Busan, but it must learn from what made Train to Busan and Seoul Station so good and what made Peninsula fail.
