Even though Studio N has had hits on Netflix, Disney+, and Crunchyroll, earned Emmy nominations, and broken box office records in South Korea, the company’s CEO said the company is still making its case for webcomic IP to much of the Western entertainment industry.
“For many people in the Western market, webcomics are still relatively new,” Mi-Kyung (Michelle) Kwon told Variety. “As we work with international development executives and distributors, we also educate them about the power of this format and the global fandom that supports our IP. Every hit project that comes along makes our job easier.”
Kwon is in Lille this week for Series Mania, and Studio N, the Korean production arm of Webtoon Entertainment, will make its television festival debut with the world premiere of “The Legend of Kitchen Soldier,” the only Korean content screening at this year’s event. She will also be participating in the Korea Special Session Panel on March 25th, as Korea will be celebrated as the first honorary country of the Series Mania Forum. But her ambitions go far beyond the festival.
Kwon argues that South Korea has already established itself as a global tastemaker in the fields of beauty, fashion, technology and music, and that webcomics are “the next export from South Korea that will have a major impact on the entertainment market globally.”
Kwon’s argument is both creative and structural. Webtoon Entertainment’s platform ecosystem counts approximately 160 million monthly active users, giving Studio N access to a pipeline of IP coming from an existing and measurable fandom. “Mobile vertical comics are now the default comics format for a new generation of fans and creators,” she says. “These are visual stories, many with multiple seasons and arcs on our platform, and come with existing fandom. This is the perfect combination for franchise potential.”
That franchise logic is already playing out across the studio. Studio N’s Netflix series “Chicken Nuggets” was recognized in the comedy category at the 2025 International Emmy Awards, earning Webtoon Entertainment its first Emmy nomination. The studio’s 2025 film “My Daughter is a Zombie,” based on the webtoon title that has been viewed over 500 million times worldwide, was the highest grossing Korean film of 2025 and the third highest grossing Korean movie overall that year. Additionally, titles include Crunchyroll’s “True Beauty,” Disney+’s “Vigilante,” “The Trauma Code: Heroes on Call,” “Sweet Home” and Netflix series like “The 8 Show.” “Bloodhound” returns for a second season on April 3 on Netflix.
The series mania premiere of “The Legend of Kitchen Soldier,” co-produced with CJ ENM’s Studio Dragon and based on the webtoon title that has been viewed more than 650 million times worldwide, is both an introduction to the market and a proof of concept for Kwon. Starring Park Ji-hoon (Weak Heroes), the series follows the life of a recruit whose life is forever changed by a virtual quest system, transforming him into a legendary military cook. This program will be originally distributed on TVING in the first half of this year.
Kwon believes that its genre-blending premise is representative of Studio N’s creative mission. The “N” in the studio’s name stands for “Next.” “People have seen millions of different military movies,” she says. “But they haven’t yet seen anything about a cook and his virtual quest, just like the Emmy-nominated series ‘Chicken Nugget,’ about someone becoming a chicken nugget. We’re excited to bring such great, creative and unexpected storytelling to the global entertainment market.”
Kwon explains that he balances platform data with more fundamental creative questions when choosing which titles to adapt. “Powerful storytelling is always at the heart of decisions about story adaptability,” she says. “We’re adapting someone else’s story world, so both webcomic authors and existing fans want to see something that does justice to the original webcomic.”
The studio also closely monitors the broader cultural moment. “Just a few days ago, ‘KPop Demon Hunters’ made history by bringing K-pop to the Oscars,” Kwon said. “K-content has never been bigger.” Whether that momentum translates into faster buy-in from Western partners may simply be a matter of accumulating evidence, she suggests. “We start by increasing fan awareness from our platform, which helps our projects become hits with audiences around the world.”
Series Mania will be held in Lille, France from March 20th to 27th. The Korean special session “From Webtoon to Series: Adaptation and Expansion of Intellectual Property” will be held on March 25th at the Louis Pasteur Auditorium.
