While it has a few different tweaks to its source material, Daniel Dae Kim shares whyButterflymade one major change. Kim, best known for the likes ofLostandHawaii Five-0, is pulling both executive producer and starring duty on the Prime Video adaptation of the BOOM! Studios graphic novel of the same name created by Arash Amel and Marguerite Bennett.
Kim stars inButterflyas David Jung, the founder of an elite spy agency who faked his death and went into hiding in the hopes of keeping his daughter safe from terrorists. Upon learning that the agency has become corrupt under the management of his former partner and his daughter is working for them as an assassin, Jung comes out of hiding.
Also starringIt’s What’s Inside’s Reina Hardesty,Yellowstone’s Piper Perabo andRivals' Louis Landau, the show marks Kim’s first leading role in an action TV show since hisHawaii Five-0exit. Premiering on August 13,Butterflyhas garnered generally positive reviewsfrom critics thus far, currently holding a 70% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
In anticipation of the show’s premiere,ScreenRantinterviewed Daniel Dae Kim, Piper Perabo and Reina Hardesty to discussButterfly. In comparing the show to the source novel, Kim explained the shift from an American and European setting to Korea is largely down to his interest in highlighting his “area of interest” in Asia and working with both the show and comic creators to make this change:
I had met with Stephen Christy, the head of Boom! Comics and Boom! Studios early on. My production company’s timeline, we’d sometimes get set up on general meetings and things don’t necessarily come of them, but he gave me this comic book, and he said, “This is something that we really love, take a look.” So I asked Stephen and the writer of the comic book Arash Amel, whether or not they’d be open to switching it up. They said yes, and we were off to the races.
For Perabo, she found that the change in location made to a setting that “hasn’t been overshot”, and one she was “so undereducated” on, a real excitement, taking the opportunity to immerse herself in “the culture, the food, the art, the music” and “the beauty”. Hardesty, on the other hand, found the setting really important for her character arc as “an Asian-American who was raised in America and hadn’t been to Korea in a very long time”. See the rest of what Hardesty explained below:
So I, as an actor, felt very fish out of water. Like, whoa, what is this? And that bled into the character and Daniel and I, specifically, we got to go to so many cool locations and just running around in these alleys and in these abandoned warehouses. It was so immersive. I feel like it kind of just brought us right into the story.
What Butterfly’s New Setting Means For The Show
Butterfly’s release comes at an interesting point in the streaming sphere as Korean-based productions have enjoyed a sharp rise in international popularity over the past few years. Thanks in large part toSquid Game’s viral debuton Netflix in 2021, both they and other streaming platforms have seen a variety of hits from the country.
However, much to Perabo’s point,Butterflyis the rare Hollywood-based production to shoot on location in the country, let alone in multiple regions. The fact that Kim felt driven to take advantage of his EP role on the show to not only showcase Korea, but also give it a thematic purpose is sure to make for some cultural bonding between Jung and Hardesty’s Rebecca.
Another wayButterfly’s location change can impact the show is the way it tackles its world of espionage. Moving beyond American-European regions, showrunners Ken Woodruff and Steph Cha have the chance to layer in extra twists with international politics and cultural differences between some of its characters.
Our Take On Butterfly’s Location Change
Regardless of where the show is set, one of the biggest things thatButterflyneeds to do correctlyin adapting its source material is the father-daughter relationship at the heart of its story. Exotic locations and international cultures are key to a great spy show, but following David’s efforts to reconnect with Rebecca after nearly a decade of hiding is a more important objective.
That being said, the way Hardesty and Kim discuss the shift ofButterflyto Korea sounds like the writers found a way to make the locale still important to the story. With much of the cast also composed of Korean actors, the show certainly sounds like one of the more promising Hollywood-based depictions of the country yet.
All six episodes ofButterflybegin streaming on Prime Video on August 13.
