Dong-geun Joo, the creator of the hit Korean webtoon All of Us Are Dead, deliberately avoided watching The Walking Dead while developing his zombie series because he worried that the popular show might influence his storytelling. In a recent interview, Joo explained how his love of horror movies shaped his debut and why he believes creators should be careful about absorbing ideas from other works.
Speaking with Anime News Network, Joo discussed the inspirations behind All of Us Are Dead, his experience with its Netflix live-action adaptation, and the growing international audience for Korean webtoons. His comments offer a look into the creative decisions behind a story that began as a webtoon before becoming a successful screen adaptation.
Joo made his debut with All of Us Are Dead in 2009. Serialized in South Korea until 2011, the series centered on students struggling to survive a zombie outbreak at their school, helping establish Joo as a creator known for combining horror with character-driven drama.
WHY JOO AVOIDED THE WALKING DEAD DURING DEVELOPMENT
Joo’s decision was rooted in his concern that consuming similar stories could unintentionally affect his own work. During his college years, he developed a strong interest in zombie films, particularly Dawn of the Dead and 28 Days Later. Those films helped establish his enthusiasm for the genre and made zombies a natural choice for his first major story.
However, Joo was also aware of how popular The Walking Dead had become while he was creating All of Us Are Dead. Although he wanted to watch the series, he chose to avoid it until his own work was complete enough that it would not influence his creative decisions.
He eventually watched the show and enjoyed it. Joo also acknowledged the possible influence of Japanese horror manga on his storytelling, particularly the works of Junji Ito, whose stories he read while growing up. He clarified that these influences were largely subconscious rather than direct inspirations for his zombie webtoon.
A SCHOOL SETTING HELPED GROUND THE ZOMBIE HORROR
Joo chose a high school setting because it was a world he understood personally. Having recently graduated when he began working on the webtoon, he felt comfortable exploring the relationships, personalities, and social pressures found in that environment.
He also viewed a school as a miniature version of society, bringing different personalities and backgrounds together in one confined space. This setting gave him opportunities to explore how people respond differently to fear, danger, and the struggle to survive.
The approach helped All of Us Are Dead combine its zombie outbreak with interpersonal conflict, making the students’ relationships an important part of the story.
JOO LET THE NETFLIX ADAPTATION DEVELOP ITS OWN IDENTITY
The Netflix adaptation brought All of Us Are Dead to a much wider audience, but Joo deliberately kept his distance from the production process. Director Lee Jae-kyoo approached him about adapting the webtoon, and Joo decided to treat the live-action series as a separate creative work.
Despite receiving the script, he never opened it. Instead, he wanted to experience the adaptation as a finished production and see how the director would reinterpret his original story.
Joo believes adaptations do not always need to follow their source material closely. He explained that differences between a live-action series and its original webtoon can encourage viewers to explore the source material and discover elements that were changed or omitted.
INTERNATIONAL FANS ARE DISCOVERING THE ORIGINAL WEBTOON
The success of All of Us Are Dead has taken Joo to eight countries to meet readers and viewers. He also noted a change in how international fans approach his work.
Previously, many fans told him they discovered the webtoon after watching the Netflix series. More recently, he has encountered more readers who started with the original webtoon and consider themselves fans of the source material.
Joo also recommended his newer work, Adonai, which combines cults and aliens. He compared its premise to Netflix’s 3 Body Problem and said readers had expressed divided opinions about its ending. Although the series did not yet have an official English translation at the time of the interview, he expressed interest in seeing how English-speaking audiences would respond.
His comments highlight how All of Us Are Dead has helped introduce his work to a global audience, while his creative process reflects the care he takes to develop original stories without being overly influenced by other creators.
