After his career hiatus following Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha, Kim Seon-ho’s return to the small screen was one of 2024’s most anticipated K-drama events. Fans expected his comeback would be something special. What they got instead was The Tyrant—a visually striking, action-packed Disney+ series that looks incredible but struggles to tell a coherent story.
Released in August 2024, this four-episode spy thriller marks Kim Seon-ho’s dramatic pivot from romantic comedy heartthrob to cold, calculating intelligence director. And while he absolutely nails the performance, the series around him can’t quite keep up.
What Is The Tyrant About?
The Tyrant exists within the universe of director Park Hoon-jung’s The Witch film franchise, serving as a side story that explores events from a different perspective. The setup is intriguing: South Korea’s government has been secretly developing a bioweapon called “The Tyrant Project”—a virus designed to enhance human abilities and create supersoldiers, all in hopes of eventually reunifying the Korean Peninsula.
When the CIA discovers the program, they demand its immediate termination and the surrender of all samples. During a covert handover of the last remaining sample, everything goes wrong. The bioweapon is stolen, and suddenly multiple factions—Korean intelligence, US agents, mercenaries, and assassins—are racing to recover it, each with their own agenda.
Director Choe (Kim Seon-ho) has been running the program unofficially and will do anything to reclaim it. Lim Sang (Cha Seung-won) is a former agent turned hitman tasked with eliminating everyone connected to the project. Paul (Kim Kang-woo) is a Korean-American CIA agent trying to ensure the sample is destroyed. And Chae Jagyeong (Jo Yoon-su) is a skilled assassin hired to steal the sample, with mysterious connections to the program’s origins.
It’s a promising setup for espionage thrills. Unfortunately, the execution is where things get messy.
The Problem: Style Over Substance
Let’s start with what The Tyrant does right: it looks absolutely stunning. Director Park Hoon-jung brings his signature visual style—wide, sweeping shots, dark atmospheric lighting, and brutal action choreography that doesn’t hold back. The cinematography is film-quality, creating an immersive world that creeps up on you. When the series commits to its aesthetic, it’s genuinely impressive.
The action sequences deliver exactly what you’d expect from the creator of The Witch franchise. Blood, gore, guns, brutal hand-to-hand combat—it’s all here in graphic detail. If you came for violence, you won’t be disappointed. The fight choreography is skillful, and the series doesn’t shy away from showing the consequences of that violence.
But here’s the catch: stunning visuals and impressive action can only carry a show so far when the story itself is confusing, rushed, and underdeveloped.
A Story That Starts in the Middle
One of the most common complaints about The Tyrant is that it feels like you’ve walked into a movie already in progress. The series throws you directly into the action with minimal setup, introducing characters without proper context and expecting viewers to keep track of multiple factions, shifting alliances, and complex motivations—all while people are shooting at each other.
Multiple reviewers reported double-checking to make sure they were actually watching episode one and hadn’t accidentally started on episode three. That’s not a good sign. The lack of proper introduction or world-building means the first two episodes can feel incomprehensible, especially if you haven’t read the synopsis beforehand or watched The Witch films.
There are so many characters appearing and disappearing that it becomes genuinely difficult to track who’s working for whom, what their objectives are, and why we should care. The series presents itself with the confidence of a story that’s clearly explained its stakes, but in reality, crucial information is either glossed over or saved for confusing flashbacks that arrive too late to help.
Should This Have Been a Movie?
With a total runtime of less than three hours spread across four episodes, many viewers questioned why The Tyrant was formatted as a series at all. There are no real cliffhangers between episodes, minimal character development that would justify the episodic structure, and a plot that feels more suited to a single film.
The pacing is bizarre—the first half moves slowly, taking its time with atmospheric shots and prolonged sequences that don’t necessarily advance the plot. Then suddenly, the second half rushes to tie up all the loose ends in a flurry of action and reveals. It’s as if the series couldn’t decide whether it had too much time or not enough.
This uneven pacing contributes to the sense that The Tyrant exists in an awkward middle ground—too short to develop its ideas properly, too long to maintain the momentum of a tight thriller.
Kim Seon-ho: The Best Part of a Flawed Series
If there’s one element of The Tyrant that receives universal praise, it’s Kim Seon-ho’s performance. As Director Choe, he brings an aloof, grounded charisma that feels natural and compelling. This is a complete departure from his romantic comedy roles, and he handles it with impressive skill.
Director Choe is calm, reserved, calculating—someone who operates in moral gray areas without apology. Kim Seon-ho even reportedly lost weight for the role, committing to a physical transformation that matches the character’s intensity. His performance in the final episode is particularly strong, showing emotional depth beneath the cold exterior.
The problem isn’t his acting. The problem is that the series doesn’t give him—or any of the characters—enough material to work with. We see what Choe does, but we don’t understand enough about who he is, what drives him, or why we should be invested in his mission beyond the basic plot mechanics.
The Breakout Star: Jo Yoon-su as Jagyeong
While Kim Seon-ho was the draw, Jo Yoon-su as assassin Chae Jagyeong emerged as the series’ unexpected highlight. Cold, ruthless, and utterly professional, she brings a John Wick-level intensity to every scene. Her action sequences are some of the series’ best, and she handles the physical demands of the role with impressive skill.
Jagyeong’s backstory connects to The Witch universe in intriguing ways—hints suggest she came from the same lab that created the supersoldier subjects from the films. The final scenes tease that she might have survived wounds that would kill an ordinary person, setting up potential future appearances.
Many viewers hope to see Jo Yoon-su in more action roles, as she proved she can carry the physical and emotional weight of a complex character. The fact that her performance stood out despite the confusing narrative is testament to her talent.
The Supporting Cast: Underutilized Talent
Cha Seung-won as former agent Lim Sang provides some comic relief without disrupting the dark atmosphere, though his character feels underutilized. There simply isn’t enough runtime to develop him properly, so he ends up feeling like a plot device rather than a fully realized person.
Kim Kang-woo as CIA agent Paul faced more criticism, with some viewers feeling his performance veered into overacting territory. His attempts to portray the antagonistic American agent sometimes felt out of place in the series’ otherwise grounded tone. That said, his rivalry with Director Choe does create some electrifying moments when they share screen time.
The Witch Connection: For Fans Only?
The Tyrant is officially set in the same universe as The Witch: Part 1. The Subversion and The Witch: Part 2. The Other One—films about young women who were genetically enhanced through brutal experimentation and must fight for survival against the organizations that created them.
You don’t technically need to watch those films to follow The Tyrant, but familiarity with the franchise definitely helps. The series expects you to understand concepts like the experimental programs, the genetic enhancements, and the shadowy organizations involved. Without that context, some of the mythology feels confusing or underdeveloped.
For fans of The Witch films, The Tyrant offers an interesting look at the same world from a different angle—focusing on the government and intelligence agencies rather than the escaped subjects. But even dedicated fans seem divided on whether this expansion added anything meaningful to the franchise or just created more confusion.
The Divided Reception
The Tyrant earned a 40% critics rating on Rotten Tomatoes with deeply mixed reviews. NME gave it four out of five stars, praising Park Hoon-jung’s striking visual style and ability to surprise with twists that have substance and stakes. The South China Morning Post, however, gave it two out of five stars, calling it exceptionally confusing with little rhyme or reason to its violence.
On audience platforms, the divide continued. Some viewers praised the action, atmosphere, and performances, calling it an entertaining addition to The Witch universe. Others found it boring, confusing, and lacking any real story—just endless sequences of people killing each other without clear motivation.
The series did find commercial success, becoming the most-watched content on Disney+ Korea for twelve consecutive days after its release and ranking second globally on the platform. But commercial success and critical acclaim don’t always align.
Who Should Watch This?
Watch The Tyrant if you:
- Are a Kim Seon-ho fan eager to see him in a dramatically different role
- Love brutal, violent action with impressive choreography and gore
- Enjoy stylish cinematography and dark atmospheric visuals
- Are invested in The Witch universe and want to see it expanded
- Don’t mind confusing plots as long as the action delivers
- Have less than three hours and want something fast-paced
Skip it if you:
- Need clear storytelling with proper character development
- Get frustrated by plots that don’t explain themselves
- Prefer your action with emotional stakes and investment
- Don’t enjoy graphic violence, blood, and brutality
- Want substance to match the style
- Haven’t watched The Witch films and don’t want homework
The Verdict: A Missed Opportunity
The Tyrant had everything going for it—a talented cast led by one of K-drama’s most beloved actors, a visually gifted director, connections to an established franchise, and Disney+ backing. What it needed was another few episodes to properly develop its story, clearer writing that trusted the audience without confusing them, and a decision about whether it wanted to be a tight thriller or a character-driven drama.
Instead, we got a series that looks incredible but feels incomplete. It’s like watching a beautifully wrapped present that turns out to contain only half of what was promised.
Kim Seon-ho proves he can handle action and darker material, which hopefully means we’ll see him in more varied roles going forward. Jo Yoon-su announces herself as an action star to watch. The technical craft is undeniably impressive. But great performances and stunning visuals can’t compensate for a story that never quite figures out what it wants to be.
For Kim Seon-ho completists and action junkies willing to overlook narrative shortcomings, The Tyrant offers enough entertainment to justify its short runtime. For everyone else, it’s a frustrating example of style overwhelming substance—beautiful to look at, but ultimately empty.
What works: Kim Seon-ho’s performance, Jo Yoon-su’s breakout role, stunning cinematography, brutal action sequences
What fails: Confusing plot, lack of character development, awkward pacing, poor exposition, underutilized cast
Content Warning: This series contains extremely graphic violence, gore, torture scenes, and strong language. Definitely not for younger viewers or those sensitive to intense brutality.
