Lost’s Daniel Dae Kim leads this six-part thriller about a former spy on the run from an elite assassin — who just happens to be his very own daughter
When it comes to storytelling, as Canadian Marshall McLuhan put it, “The medium is the message.” Films and TV shows are able to, if not “improve” a concept that originated in print, at least put an intriguing new spin on it. AMC’s The Walking Dead and Netflix’s Jessica Jones can attest to that. But it takes more than a simple storyboard to guarantee screen success — especially in a world saturated with top-tier content from cable, streaming and, of course, the multiplex.
Yes, in order to acquire and maintain a loyal fanbase, a story must have heart — something Prime Video is counting on to drive its newest thriller into homes across North America when it lands on the streamer this week.
Butterfly is a six-episode series based on the Boom! Studios graphic novel of the same name written by Arash Amel and Marguerite Bennett and illustrated by Antonio Fuso and Stefano Simeone. Delving deep into the inherently fraught nature of parent-child relationships, and the intricacies tied to personal identity, Butterfly stars Daniel Dae Kim (Hawaii Five-0) and Reina Hardesty (It’s What’s Inside) as two elite covert agents who are also father and daughter — unexpectedly hurled back into each other’s lives when one is assigned to kill the other.
“Butterfly is a character-driven spy thriller that explores complex family dynamics within the treacherous world of global espionage,” reads the official description, as provided by Amazon Studios. “It’s centred on David Jung [Kim], an enigmatic, highly unpredictable former U.S. intelligence operative living in South Korea, whose life is blown to pieces when the consequences of an impossible decision from his past come back to haunt him, and he finds himself pursued by Rebecca [Hardesty] — a deadly, sociopathic young agent assigned to kill him, and Caddis, the sinister spy organization she works for.”
When, per the trailer, David acknowledges that he faked his own death and led young Rebecca to believe him dead for the past 20 years, the father-daughter duo must face the impact of David’s problematic decisions and try to heal their strained relationship while also outrunning Juno (Piper Perabo), a “brilliant, formidable, Machiavellian woman” who, according to Variety, was once a successful lawyer before she “came to the conclusion that she needs power and money to get anything done in this world.” Now a fierce, protective mother and the high-powered CEO of an intelligence agency, Juno “will often tamp down [her vulnerabilities] when they conflict with her goals.”
Not unlike David, Juno is staring down a broken relationship with her own adult child, Oliver (The Serpent Queen star Louis Landau).
The adaptation comes from showrunner Ken Woodruff, who previously worked on The Mentalist, Gotham and La Brea, among other projects, and Korean-American author Steph Cha, who wrote tense 2019 sociopolitical tome Your House Will Pay: A Novel, set during the 1992 human rights riots in L.A. Although Butterfly is based primarily in South Korea rather than stateside, like her novel, Cha’s respected commentary on race politics and deep interpersonal relations remains at the heart of the show.
Teasing the series in an official statement, leading man Kim opined: “Butterfly is the realization of a longtime dream to bring together American and Korean storytellers, and create a show that bridges two cultures that I love deeply. I couldn’t be happier with the creative team we’ve assembled, both in front of and behind the camera, and I’m grateful to Ken Woodruff, BOOM! Studios, 3AD, Amazon and everyone else who helped bring it to life.”
The series premiere of Butterfly begins streaming Wednesday, August 13 on Prime Video