Disney+‘s The Zone: Survival Mission is back with a new season this summer, with 3 episodes dropping on 7 August!
The press conference was held in South Korea on 6 August and was attended by Yu Jaeseok, Kwon Yuri, Kim Donghyun, Dex, Director Cho Hyojin and Director Kim Dongjin.
The 4 cast members were invited on stage individually for photo time before the press conference started. Everyone showed off their quirky and dorky sides which matched the vibe of this show.
The directors shared that as there were 2 new cast members added for this season, they decided to upgrade this season and were able to do something new that they were unable to do for the past seasons as Kwon Yuri was the one that did all the heavy lifting previously.
There is a scary episode for this season. Director Cho shared that when the cast members walked into an abandon resort (in Episode 3), all the crew members were hiding and thus it shows that the cast members were all alone. The crew did a test shoot the day before and everyone really freaked out at how scary and real the set was. Director Cho expected Kwon Yuri and Yu Jaeseok to be freaked out but unexpectedly, Dex is also a scaredy cat.
Kwon Yuri felt that the missions leveled up for this season and it became harder to succeed.
Kim Donghyun added that he is an avid fan of this show but watching it on screen and being personally on the show felt really different. It looked fun to watch but he had a difficult time for each mission. He thought he was ready but turned out that he was not. If he were to do it again, he felt that it would be tough. This season was filmed during winter so the weather conditions were bad, but he will definitely return for Season 4 if there is one.
Dex is also an avid fan of this show. When he watched Season 2, he felt that it looked easy and thought that everything was an act. But when he was actually doing the missions, it was tough and challenging, but fun.
Director Kim mentioned that the missions of this new season really leveled up because of the 2 new cast members. As he would like to bring empathy out of the viewers towards the cast members, the missions could not be too easy. So they tried on new challenges with tougher missions as well as physically draining missions.
He also shared that the final mission would be different from the past seasons. Usually in past seasons the cast members are awarded with Z coins. However for this season, aside from Z coins that were used for the show, there will be lots of amazing people showing up in the final episode and the cast members can take away a total sum of $2 million KRW as the grand price! Do watch on to see how much cash the cast members get to take home eventually.
For Episode 1 – A.I Zone,the cast members were faced with 100 Jaeseoks (A.I. robots). All the A.I robots were wearing masks with Yu Jaeseok‘s face on it. To Yu Jaeseok, it was the worst mission he did, as the masks were of such good quality. He could see 100 of his face everywhere he went, and it really threw him off. Yu Jaeseok shared that initially, the crew wanted to model his face but he did not know what was it for until the 1st episode.
The production crew had taken things up a notch and invited crew that were professionals. Even though the A.I robots have the face of Yu Jaeseok, but they definitely do not have the body of Yu Jaeseok. They are bulked up and Kim Donghyun chipped in to say that they have the ears of fighters! (Cauliflower ears). The directors also added in that as Kim Donghyun and Dex were added into the show they had to invite crew members that could fight them (since both of them gives off the “strong” vibe). If it was just Yu Jaeseok, Kwon Yuri and Lee Kwangsoo, they wouldn’t have hired professionals.
Kwon Yuri also shared that contrary to their appearances, Kim Donghyun and Dex are softies and are afraid of ghosts so even though in Episode 3 she was also scared out of her wits, she felt that she should keep calm. She added on that she also had fun watching them freak out. However, Kim Donghyun jokingly added on that he felt Kwon Yuri is not afraid of ghosts but faked it only when she is around Dex.
It was revealed that for Episode 3 at the abandoned resort, Kim Donghyun cracked everyone up. He shared that apparently he blacked out a few times and couldn’t remember parts of what happened. Yu Jaeseok added that in previous seasons, he was always the first to run away but apparently Kim Donghyun runs away faster than him. Kim Donghyun mentioned that he kept telling himself everything is fake but a lot of things that is happening doesn’t makes sense. He advices the press to not watch Episode 3 alone, and to turn on all the lights when watching it.
When asked what can we expect from Dex, he shared that he tries to act tough but he is not. Through Episode 3, turns out that he is afraid of ghosts too. He felt that he doesn’t even have to try acting out his emotions. Once he step into the set, he is fully immersed in it and all the emotion and reactions flows out naturally.
The Zone: Survival Mission Season 3 is now avaliable on Disney+ with 3 episodes ready for you to binge!
We’ve warned you – Episode 3 is really scary! (It took me 3 days to finish it!)
