Beef Season 2 was inspired by several TV shows and movies, including a groundbreaking HBO program and two Best Picture winners.
What are Beef Season 2’s biggest inspirations?
Charles Melton is one of the stars of Beef Season 2. Melton recently spoke with i-D about his conversations with Beef creator Lee Sung Jin about the upcoming season. According to Melton, Lee sent the cast movies and TV shows to watch to prep for the shoot. The list included Best Picture winners Amadeus and Parasite, Newsroom, Mother, Handmaiden, and The Sopranos.
Speaking of The Sopranos, Melton revealed that Lee used the Emmy-winning HBO show to explain Beef Season 2.
“He said, ‘It’s like 40% of Sopranos,’” Melton explained. “You know when Tony Soprano is hiding or lying. You’re kind of in the mind with him.”
Melton is one of the stars of Beef Season 2, along with Oscar Isaac, Carey Mulligan, and Cailee Spaeny. Isaac and Mulligan will play one couple, while Melton and Spaeny will play another.
“In Season 2, a Gen-Z couple witnesses an alarming fight between their Millennial boss and his wife. Newly-engaged Ashley Miller (Spaeny) and Austin Davis (Melton), both lower-level staff at a country club, become entangled in the unraveling marriage of their General Manager, Joshua Martín (Isaac), and his wife, Lindsay Crane-Martín (Mulligan),” the official synopsis reads. “Through favors and coercion, both couples vie for the approval of the elitist club’s billionaire owner, Chairwoman Park, who struggles to manage her own scandal involving her second husband, Doctor Kim.”
Additional cast members include Youn Yuh-jung as Chairwoman Park, Seoyeon Jang as Eunice, William Fichtner as Troy, Mikaela Hoover as Ava, BM as Woosh, and Song Kang-ho as Dr. Kim.
Lee is the creator, showrunner, and executive producer of Beef Season 2. Isaac, Mulligan, Melton, and Spaeny will executive produce, along with Jake Schreier, Steven Yeun, Ali Wong, Anna Moench, Kitao Sakurai, and Ethan Kuperberg.
Beef Season 2 will stream on Netflix on April 16, 2026.
