Genie, Make a Wish Episode 1: Release date news, time, streaming details, and more

Genie, Make a Wish premieres on October 3, 2025, arriving on Netflix just as South Korea enters Chuseok, the great autumn harvest holiday. It’s a launch built to resonate: families are together, work pauses, and the country collectively looks back at roots while dreaming forward.

Into this mood comes a lavish fantasy romance that reunites two of the most beloved K-drama stars of the past decade, Kim Woo-bin and Bae Suzy, under the pen of master storyteller Kim Eun-sook, who changed television with Goblin and later shattered illusions with The Glory.

Netflix and production house Hwa&Dam Pictures have spent two years building this show, including international filming in Dubai and a high-profile switch of directors mid-production. The result is one of the platform’s most ambitious Korean dramas of 2025.

Chuseok: the cultural heartbeat behind the premiere

Chuseok (추석), also known as Hangawi, is a three-day festival held on the fifteenth day of the eighth lunar month, when the harvest moon glows brightest.

It’s a time of migration as millions travel back to hometowns, clean and visit ancestral graves, and perform charye, an ancestral memorial ritual with elaborate food tables offered in gratitude for the year’s crops. Families prepare and share songpyeon, half-moon rice cakes filled with sweet or nutty pastes and steamed over pine needles for fragrance.

Markets bustle with gifts and seasonal fruits, and traditional games and dances return for a few rare, unhurried days.

For broadcasters, Chuseok is more than a holiday; it’s a ratings magnet. With offices closed, schools on break, and entire extended families under one roof, viewing together becomes part of the season. Networks often schedule their most sentimental or spectacular shows for this period.

Netflix, though global, understands this rhythm. By debuting Genie, Make a Wish at the very start of Chuseok, it taps into the nostalgia and family-centered energy that define the holiday, while also catching viewers at home and online with time to binge and discuss.

The cast of Genie, Make a Wish: beloved leads and a carefully built ensemble

In Genie, Make a Wish, Kim Woo-bin takes on the role of Iblis, a wish-granting being with a much older and darker truth beneath his polished exterior.

Woo-bin built his name on characters who mix charm and pain, from The Heirs to Our Blues, and his return to lead status after a well-documented health battle has been emotional for fans. Here, in Genie, Make a Wish, he gets to combine that deep-rooted charisma with danger, playing a supernatural figure who may not be trustworthy.

Bae Suzy stars as Ki Ka-young, a woman raised under strict emotional control by her grandmother, so frozen by rules that she barely lets herself want anything.

Suzy began as an idol with Miss A but became one of Korea’s most bankable actresses through Start-Up, While You Were Sleeping, and the acclaimed Anna. Her ability to make quiet characters compelling gives Ka-young’s numbness real weight before Genie crashes into her life.

The supporting cast gives texture and intrigue to Genie, Make a Wish.

Ahn Eun-jin, fresh from awards buzz for My Dearest and remembered warmly from Hospital Playlist, plays Mi-joo, a mysterious woman with motives not yet revealed.

Noh Sang-hyun, who impressed global viewers in Pachinko, appears as Soo-hyun, Genie’s brother and rival.

Ko Kyu-pil, a character actor known for comic timing and hidden depths, plays Sayeed, Genie’s companion who is secretly a black jaguar.

Lee Joo-young, praised for Itaewon Class and Broker, becomes Min-ji, Ka-young’s one true friend and moral anchor.

For fans, the return of Woo-bin and Suzy together is an event in itself. Their chemistry in Uncontrollably Fond was iconic and bittersweet, and nearly a decade later both actors have matured artistically and personally.

Early press conferences had Woo-bin praising Kim Eun-sook’s script for Genie, Make a Wish as playful yet provocative, while Suzy addressed poster backlash with grace, showing an actress who engages with her audience instead of retreating.

Why Genie, Make a Wish is one of the most anticipated dramas of 2025

Very few Korean series enter the year with this level of built-in excitement.

Kim Eun-sook’s return to fantasy after Goblin alone is enough to command global attention. That series reshaped modern K-drama, blending myth, romance, and philosophical depth, and set the gold standard for international success.

Netflix has positioned Genie, Make a Wish as a flagship release in its 2025 lineup. Marketing has leaned on its prestige cast, lavish production, and international filming, signaling a project meant to compete with the streamer’s most acclaimed titles.

The emotional pull of reuniting Woo-bin and Suzy adds another layer. Fans who followed their journey in Uncontrollably Fond have spent years hoping to see them share the screen again. Now they return older, more complex, and with a script designed to balance romance and danger.

Combined with a Chuseok launch, when viewership naturally surges, Genie, Make a Wish feels built to dominate both domestic conversation and global trending charts from day one.

Production and behind-the-scenes story

Genie, Make a Wish was first announced in mid-2023 by Hwa&Dam Pictures with Kim Eun-sook as writer.

Director Lee Byeong-heon, known for Extreme Job and Be Melodramatic, was attached early but stepped aside as tone and scope evolved. Ahn Gil-ho, whose credits include Happiness and The Glory, took the helm, bringing experience with both genre and high-stakes character drama.

Filming for Genie, Make a Wish ran through 2023 and 2024, with a high-profile Dubai shoot in February 2024 for key fantasy sequences and a full wrap in October that year. Netflix promoted the show in its “Next on Netflix Korea 2025” event, framing it as a flagship fantasy-romance with dark twists.

Episodes were planned for a 12-part run, a format Kim Eun-sook has used before to keep pacing tight while giving space for complex emotional arcs. Netflix will release them weekly in its usual global slot: midnight Pacific Time.

The story begins: wishes with a price

Ki Ka-young lives a life of obedience and emptiness, trained by her grandmother to avoid desire.

One ordinary day she discovers a lamp and awakens Iblis, a charming stranger who introduces himself as a genie ready to grant three wishes. Freedom and transformation tempt her, but there’s something unnerving behind his smile.

Iblis is no simple helper; he’s a force meant to test human morality and twist destiny.

The first episode of Genie, Make a Wish sets up Ka-young’s cold, rule-bound world, the shock of meeting a magical being, and the first subtle signs that her wishes may carry consequences she cannot foresee.

Trivia for K-drama fans

Longtime viewers of Goblin will remember a playful detail: the Grim Reaper (Wang Yeo) once gives Kim Woo Bin as a fake name when asked to identify himself.

It was a humorous, improvised alias, never meant as his real identity, but it stuck with fans.

Now the real Kim Woo-bin headlines a supernatural fantasy written by the same Kim Eun-sook, turning that old joke into a full-circle delight for anyone who caught it years ago.