Where Does Steven Yeun Go From ‘Okja’?

In the week since Okja landed on Netflix, you’ve probably been doing a lot of thinking about bacon and Jake Gyllenhaal’s shorts and where you can roll around in the mountains with your very own superpig. But after viewing the latest from Bong Joon Ho, I’ve been thinking a lot about what Steven Yeun’s next career moves will be.

The Korean American actor was a brilliant casting in the film for a number of reasons, not least of which is his ability to speak both Korean and English. That his character, K, involves himself in a bit of mistranslating mischief was only enhanced by the fact that most audiences best know Yeun as Glenn from The Walking Dead. It’s easy to go into Okja believing Yeun would be portraying another character with a good heart, a hero, a good guy. He’s part of a group that loves animals! So for him to listen to adorable little Mija say she wants to go back to the mountains with Okja, and then proudly turn to his crew —with the biggest smile on his face— and announce, “She agrees to the mission!” well, just wow. Who saw that coming?

What Yeun should see coming his way are more opportunities to play the villain. While K eventually redeemed himself in Okja, Yeun’s flirtation with being the bad guy was just a taste of what he’s capable of. What we saw with his time as Glenn was the heart and soul of a show that was mostly about dirt and blood spurts. He’s got a way of sucking you in, something so genuine, and a vulnerability he’s able to bring to the screen that makes any swerve into bad guy territory that much more heartbreaking and unexpected. As he recently told The Ringer, “Director Bong loves to tell this story about why he cast me. He’ll say, ‘Steven has this ability, he looks like a liar — but a liar that you forgive for his lies. That’s what Steven’s face says to me.’”

And he’s right! Not that we would ever want to over up that face, but something about the black ski mask worked for him. In some way, it just feels right that this guy is portraying someone who is just up to no damn good. He pulls it off! And after spending a lot of time doing voice work (Trollhunters, Voltron, and upcoming projects The Star and Chew) it’s really great to see him back in action. How quickly can we insert him into something mind-bendy, like one of those roles where we’re a little bit scared of him and want to trust him but aren’t sure if we should? He’d totally own that.

With Okja, it feels as though several doors have been flung wide open for Yeun and it’s up to him to decide where he’d like to go. We’ve seen him successfully venture towards comedy before, including stopping by this season of Bajillion Dollar Propertie$ and his comedic chemistry with Conan O’Brien, so this is very much a route he can take, if he wanted. Even Okja threw him a handful of winking moments. Just throwing this out there, and I know I’m not alone, but get this guy the lead in a romantic comedy! He had us swooning in his Glenn days, but swap out the zombies with some flirtatious witty banter and we’re good to go.

Whether he chooses to go heartbreaker or lawbreaker will be interesting to see (and it should be noted that stealing hearts is its own form of villainry). Yeun’s got the opportunity to keep us guessing, with his next role carrying the potential for a lot of excitement. In an ideal world, even if it’s not picking up where the Okja end credits scene left off, Yeun re-teams with Bong for an even weirder and wackier role, à la Gyllenhaal here (shorts TBD). Don’t get this translation twisted: wherever Yeun pops up next will likely be a delightful surprise.

Where to watch Okja