‘Hellbound’ Original Webtoon Had a Different Ending Compared to the Netflix K-Drama

The acclaimed Korean drama Hellbound first came to life in the online pages of a webtoon. Director Yeon Sang-ho developed the webtoon with writer Choi Gyu-seok in 2021. The webtoon and K-drama follow the same storyline of a new world phenomenon where “sinners” are condemned to hell after being given a prophecy. Director Yeon reveals the webtoon was not 100% completed when Netflix approved Hellbound. The K-drama’s ending is not the same as what is published in the webtoon.

Director Yeon had to create a live-action ‘Hellbound’ based on the webtoon and animation

The original webtoon has 55 chapters that Yeon and Choi later developed into an animation. Yeon and his team had to cast the right actors and create the perfect setting to bring the supernatural story to life. Kim Hyun-joo, who plays Min Hye-jin in the K-drama, read the webtoon and had some concerns.

“Since the facial expressions of the characters from the webtoon were very realistic, I wondered how the series was going to depict that,” said Kim in a Netflix interview. Kim wondered, “will the characters exclude their original personalities?”

Yeon has previously expressed a critical aspect of making the webtoon into a K-drama relied on the right actors. When it came to Jung Jin-soo, Yoo Ah-in portrayed the webtoon character’s “ugly inner self.” Hellbound is an almost perfect remake of the webtoon and animation, except for its ending.

‘Hellbound’s’ webtoon ending is different to what K-drama fans saw

The finale of the six-episode K-drama stunned fans as it left more questions than answers. Baby Toughie survives, and a character returns from the dead or hell. Hellbound’s ending is not what was written in the webtoon.

“(Choi and I) decided on the ending for the webcomic from the beginning, so we discussed the ending for the series while we were working on the webcomic,” said Yeon to The Korea Times. “We sought for ways to strategize the advantages of having the story’s creator as the series’ director, and came up with the idea to go with this ending only for the series.”

According to Soompi, Yeon told Herald POP, “I contemplated on how I should reveal the last scene. It’s not that I didn’t include it in the cartoon because it wasn’t ready, but instead, I made the strategical decision to include it in the drama and not the cartoon.” Without any spoilers, fans can read the webtoon ending for themselves.

Will there be a ‘Hellbound’ Season 2?

Hellbound ended on a cliffhanger that alludes to more storylines and another season. Director Yeon revealed a season 2 on Netflix has not been planned yet. The main reason is that Yeon and Choi want to develop the next storyline into a webtoon first.

Whether or not to create it into another live-action still needs to be discussed. Yeon also reveals he and Choi plan to publish Hellbound’s webtoon continuation in 2022. K-drama fans can beta head start on the webtoon when it debuts and hope for a new season on Netflix.