Netflix's Kingdom: Who among the cast and creators would survive a real-life zombie apocalypse?

She wrote magnificent tales of human bravery and sacrifice, and they orchestrated jaw-dropping scenes of impassioned battles against rabid zombies.

And even if it was only on-screen, the stellar cast of Netflix's Joseon-era zombie apocalypse hit drama series Kingdom must have learnt a thing or two about survival skills. 

So during AsiaOne's video conference interviews yesterday (March 5) with the creators and key cast members of Kingdom Season 2, we asked them this: "If there was a zombie apocalypse in real life, how do you think you will survive through it?" 

Some of their answers, given through a translator, might surprise you.

Kim Eun-hee, the writer for Kingdom, said: "I think often about (a zombie apocalypse). Whenever I am in a parking lot, I try to imagine: if a zombie were to appear, where would the best parking spot be? But realistically speaking, if there were a zombie apocalypse, it would be more convenient for me to die as fast as I can."

The executive producer (EP) of Kingdom Season 2, Kim Seong-hun, said he wouldn't put up a fight. "Rather than running away from the zombies only to be bitten by them in the end, I would just be still, stand there, and accept my fate."

Park In-je, the director of Kingdom Season 2, added: "I'd like to go the largest supermarket I could find, and eat as much food as I could, things that I wasn't able to enjoy before, play games, enjoy everything available to humans, and drink. Ultimately, I'd be bitten and become a zombie, but until I do so, I would like to enjoy myself as much as possible."

Seriously? They don't even fight back like the heroes in their drama series do? We probed them harder on their answers and EP Kim explained: "As I worked on (Kingdom), I felt that it's so much work to run away for survival. So — watching (the actors) and creating the series — I came to the conclusion that rather than do that, I'd rather accept my fate."

Writer Kim then added: "If you look at the leads on all the other projects and different genres that I worked on, they always tend to be extremely tenacious, never know when to quit, and go against all odds. That's because I tend to write about characters that I wish I could be more like. If (the zombie attacks) were to happen in reality… I would just give up and die."

Director Park gave a convincing — though depressing — possible consequence of the bleak future. He said: "I can do a simulation in my head. If I eat everything at the supermarket, I've got no more food, I'll have to resort to farming but I'll still need to eat meat. But I can't eat zombie meat because we all know what happens when you do that. I will try to survive but I think at the end of the day, I'll become a zombie."

Thankfully, some of the main cast members were more gungho about their survival. Leading man Ju Ji-hoon, who plays Crown Prince Lee Chang in the drama, told us: "Zombies can't get into the water, so what I'll do is get on a ship and try to find help, send out an SOS, because there won't be a lot of food on the ship."

Bae Doona, who plays Seo-bi, said: "My character is constantly focused on finding the reason for the epidemic and also the treatment, so I have a few ideas up my sleeve. But I can't tell you because there will be spoilers. But definitely, I will do something. I'm not allowed to say anymore… I'm just going to run as fast as I can."

"I don't think I will enjoy being bitten on many different places on the body, so I'm just going to let (the zombies) know where they can kill me in one bite," Kim Sung-Kyu said, to erupting laughter from Doona. He plays the mysterious fighter Young-shin in Kingdom.

Looks like Ji-hoon and Doona are our best bet for surviving a zombie attack!

Season 2 of Kingdom will be available on Netflix from March 13.

kwokkarpeng@asiaone.com

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