Pachinko star Jin Ha, who portrays Solomon Baek in the sweeping historical fiction series adapted from Min Jin Lee’s best-selling novel, got to venture into a more comedic role as in the upcoming season of Only Murders in the Building.
Pachinko season 2 launched on Apple TV+ on August 23 with the first episode.
“I shot Pachinko Season 2 last year in the first half of the year, and then Only Murders we shot earlier this year. It’s amazing the turnaround they have,” Ha told Deadline on the premiere carpet for Only Murders in the Building Season 4. “I wasn’t having to straddle both characters, but I’m so thrilled that I get to play in these different worlds, different genres and be in the historical drama, the project that I care so deeply about, and I love. I think Season 2 is fire and the cast — I can’t speak for myself — but the cast is phenomenal, and then to be in a legendary show like this, just goofing around and being silly, being a clown, is also a dream.”
Season 1 of Pachinko watched a key business deal that Solomon was trying to close evaporate right before his eyes, even with his agreement in the matter.
“I think we find Solomon at what he believes to be a really low point in his life, and maybe what he thinks is rock bottom, and we go from there and follow him. From the bottom, the only way is up,” Ha said of his character’s Season 2 plotline. “But it’s the way in which he goes about that the decisions that he makes that I hope will engage the audience throughout the season. Also the earlier arc — it goes from 1945 so like through World War Two — it’s incredible what they have in store for Season 2, especially with the older timeline.”
Pachinko creator Soo Hugh also teased a bit about Solomon’s path in the current season, as hinted at in the trailer with some romantic moments he shares with Naomi (Anna Sawai).
“It was so much fun to be able to write Solomon, the romantic figure in season 2, and what is great about that is you get to see Solomon’s vulnerabilities in a way that we hadn’t seen before in season 1,” Soo Hugh told Deadline. “He and Naomi just have this connection. It’s both push and pull because they’re so similar, but at the end of the day, you realize these two people really do see one another. I think that’s why that love blooms between them. I just love that he found this connection with this woman who really understood him.”
Ha will appear in Only Murders in the Building Season 4 starting Tuesday, August 27 when the show premieres.
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