Apple orders season two of historical drama ‘Pachinko’

Apple is moving forward with a second season of its critically-acclaimed adaption of Min Jin Lee’s best-selling novel Pachinko. The company announced the renewal shortly before the show’s season one finale premiered this past Friday on Apple TV+.

Published in 2017, Lee’s multi-generational tale won accolades for its portrayal of a Korean family who immigrates to Japan before the outbreak of the Second World War. What’s striking about both the novel and Apple’s drama series is how they effortlessly weave history and the deeply personal stories of their characters together. From Japanese colonialism in Korea to the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and later Japan’s economic boom in the 1980s, history has a profound effect on Pachinko’s characters and yet the story always feels intimate.

Friday’s season one finale pulled from a scene that occurs about a third through Lee’s approximately 500-page novel, so there’s plenty of story left for Apple’s TV+ series to adapt. The company didn’t say when season two will begin filming or when it plans to stream the new episodes. All of that just means you have time to catch up on Pachinko if you’ve been sleeping on it.