Queen Mantis
2025 South Korean television series
Queen Mantis (Korean: 사마귀: 살인자의 외출) is a 2025 South Korean mystery-thriller-police procedural television series written by Lee Young-jong and directed by Byun Young-joo based on the 2017 TF1 series La Mante. Go Hyun-jung and Jang Dong-yoon portray the lead roles. It aired on SBS TV from September 5, to September 27, 2025, every Friday and Saturday at 21:50 (KST).
01Synopsis
A woman was imprisoned as a serial killer a long time ago. The story unfolds as someone begins committing a series of murders imitating her.
02Cast
Main
- Go Hyun-jung as Jung Yi-shin
- A woman who was imprisoned for being a serial killer.
- Jang Dong-yoon as Cha Soo-yeol / Kim Jeong-ho
- A detective. Jung Yi-shin's estranged son.
- Jo Sung-ha as Choi Jung-ho
- A police officer who advised Cha Soo-yeol to become a detective.
- Lee El as Kim Na-hee
- A detective who should be in charge of the investigation but is replaced by Cha Soo-Yeol without knowing his connection to his birth mother.
Supporting
- Kim Bo-ra as Lee Jung-yeon
- President of a pottery studio. Cha Soo-yeol's wife.
- Lee Hwang-ui as Jeong Hyeon-nam
- Suyeol's maternal grandfather and Jeong Yi-shin's father. He cared for Suyeol, who grew up without parents
- Kim Min-ho as Bae Seong-gyu
- A member of the serial murder investigation team. He has a deep respect and camaraderie for Kim Na-hee
- Kim Tae-jung as Choi Hyuk
- The youngest detective in the Violent Crimes Investigation Unit.
- Park Wan-hyung as Son Ji-an
- Cyber Investigator in the Investigation Team
- Han Dong-hee as Seo Ara / Kang Yeon-Joong
- A close friend and colleague who runs the same workshop as Jeongyeon.
- Lee Chang-min as Park Min-jae
- Lee Tae-gu as Seo Gu-wan
- Lee Yoon-geon as Hong Seung-pyo
- Han Si-a as Kim Eun-ae
- Gil Eun-seong as Kim Woo-tae
- Cha Sun-bae as Park Eun-bae
03Production
Development
The eight-episode series is written by Lee Young-jong and directed by Byun Young-joo. It is planned by Studio S, which also co-produced the series with Mega Monster, Merry Christmas, and Docu-Factory Vista for SBS TV.
Queen Mantis is Lee's debut as a television series writer. He previously wrote the screenplay for the films Flu (2013), The Witness (2018) and 12.12: The Day (2023).
In an interview with OSEN, Lee said that the initial plan was to adapt La Mante into a film; however, Mega Monster recommended a series adaptation instead, which later prevailed.
Casting
On November 14, 2023, the production companies announced that the lead role for the series was offered to Go Hyun-jung. On July 23, 2024, Go and Jang Dong-yoon were confirmed to portray the lead roles.
Ji Chang-wook was offered the role of Cha Soo-yeol but declined due to scheduling conflict.
Kim Bo-ra previously portrayed the role of Ha Seol in the 2024 MBC TV Friday-Saturday drama Black Out, which was the debut television work of director Byun Young-joo.
Filming
Principal photography began in August 2024. Filming was done from October 2024 to February 2025.
Promotion
A teaser for the series was aired on December 21, 2024 during the 2024 SBS Drama Awards.
04Release
It premiered on SBS TV on September 5, 2025, and airs every Friday and Saturday at 21:50 (KST).
Queen Mantis is available for streaming on Wavve, Netflix (South Korea and selected regions), Kocowa (North America), U-NEXT (Japan), friDay Video, Hami Video and CHT MOD (Taiwan), TrueVisions Now (Thailand) and Rakuten Viki (selected regions).
05Viewership
| Season | Episode number | Average | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | |||
| 1 | 1272 | 1325 | 1341 | 1446 | 1270 | 1098 | 1191 | 1404 | 1293 | |
| Ep. | Original broadcast date | Average audience share (Nielsen Korea) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nationwide | Seoul | ||
| 1 | September 5, 2025 | 7.1% (3rd) | 7.3% (3rd) |
| 2 | September 6, 2025 | 6.9% (2nd) | 7.3% (2nd) |
| 3 | September 12, 2025 | 7.3% (3rd) | 7.0% (3rd) |
| 4 | September 13, 2025 | 7.5% (2nd) | 7.5% (2nd) |
| 5 | September 19, 2025 | 6.6% (5th) | 6.9% (3rd) |
| 6 | September 20, 2025 | 6.0% (3rd) | 6.4% (3rd) |
| 7 | September 26, 2025 | 6.3% (6th) | 6.5% (3rd) |
| 8 | September 27, 2025 | 7.4% (2nd) | 7.9% (2nd) |
| Average | 6.9% | 7.1% | |
| |||
06Accolades
| Award ceremony | Year | Category | Recipient(s) | Result | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Director's Cut Awards | 2026 | Best Actress (Drama) | Go Hyun-jung | Nominated |
Sources and credits
This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Queen Mantis”, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.
Images, from Wikimedia Commons:
- Queen Mantis poster.png by Unknown author, Fair use
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