If you walked out of HOPE thinking,
“Wait… is that really the ending?”
you were probably not alone.
Na Hong-jin’s ambitious sci-fi film leaves several major questions unanswered. The final moments suddenly expand the story beyond the human characters we have been following, while the mid-credits scene makes the world feel much larger than one strange incident in a Korean village.
At first, that ending can feel deliberately frustrating.
But recent interviews with director Na Hong-jin and actress Hoyeon reveal something that changes how we should look at it.
There is already a story for HOPE 2.
And if it gets made, the humans may no longer be the center of the story.
Na Hong-jin Has Already Written a Sequel
This isn’t just a fan theory created because HOPE has an open ending.
At the Cannes Film Festival in May, Na Hong-jin confirmed that he had already written a story and script for a sequel.
He made one thing clear, however:
A script existing does not mean the sequel has officially been greenlit.
Na said he would like to make it if he gets the opportunity.
That distinction is important.
So HOPE 2 isn’t officially on the production calendar yet.
But creatively?
The story already exists.
And more recent comments reveal what that story could look like.
HOPE 2 May Begin Where the First Movie Ends
One of the strangest things about HOPE is how much of its chaos happens in daylight.
For a creature movie, that is unusual.
Monsters traditionally belong to darkness.
Na deliberately did the opposite.
And apparently, there is a reason.
In a September interview, the director explained that what audiences have seen is only part of the larger story he wrote.
The first film takes place before sunset.
The sequel would continue into the night.
Suddenly, the structure of HOPE looks very different.
The ending may not simply be an ambiguous ending.
It could also be a transition.
Day → night.
Humans → aliens.
Part One → Part Two.
The Biggest Change: The Aliens Could Become the Main Characters
This is where things get really interesting.
Michael Fassbender, Alicia Vikander, Taylor Russell and Cameron Britton were cast in creature roles.
That’s an extraordinary collection of actors to place behind alien performances.
Why hire actors of that caliber if audiences barely get to recognize them?
Na Hong-jin has now given us an answer.
He said he needed strong, detailed performances from the creatures because the next part of the story would shift toward the aliens’ perspective.
That could completely change HOPE.
The first movie essentially asks us to experience the crisis alongside the humans.
We see something unknown.
We fear it.
We chase it.
We fight it.
But what happens when the camera crosses to the other side?
Maybe the creatures don’t see themselves as the monsters at all.
Hoyeon Just Made the Ending Much More Interesting
Hoyeon’s recent interview with ELLE provides another major clue.
She explained that the irony of HOPE is intentional.
The humans believe they are protecting themselves and acting with good intentions.
But those actions can still create tragedy when seen from another perspective.
That may be the key to understanding the entire film.
At the beginning, we naturally identify with the humans.
Something strange has appeared.
People are frightened.
They want to protect their families and their village.
So we instinctively divide the world into:
Humans = us
Aliens = threat
But HOPE slowly destabilizes that assumption.
Na Hong-jin himself has described major chase sequences as beginning with a sense of righteousness before gradually becoming unjust.
Maybe the question was never simply:
“Are the aliens dangerous?”
Maybe it was:
“What do our actions look like from their side?”
And HOPE 2 could finally answer that.
Hoyeon Says Na Hong-jin Originally Told Her It Was Three Movies
Then Hoyeon revealed something even bigger.
When Na Hong-jin originally explained the project to her, she says he didn’t describe HOPE as a franchise.
He described it as three movies and explained the larger universe he wanted to create.
That means the strange structure of the first movie may make more sense if it was conceived as the opening section of a much larger story.
Movie 1 establishes the humans.
Movie 2 could reveal the aliens.
And a potential third movie could bring those perspectives together.
Exactly what Part 3 would contain has not been publicly confirmed, so anything beyond that would be speculation.
But suddenly HOPE doesn’t look like a movie that accidentally forgot to answer its questions.
It looks like a movie intentionally withholding part of the story.
Even the Ending Looks Different Now
This is why I think some viewers may reassess the ending after hearing these interviews.
The film ends just as the aliens’ story seems ready to expand, and the mid-credits scene further encourages questions about what comes next.
Without knowing Na’s larger plan, that can feel abrupt.
But imagine the ending as a doorway instead.
For most of HOPE, we have been standing on the human side of that door.
The ending opens it.
And the next movie potentially walks through.
That doesn’t automatically make the ending satisfying for everyone. An audience member can still reasonably prefer a movie to resolve more of its story within a single film.
But it does explain why the ending feels like the perspective is suddenly shifting.
Because that may be exactly what Na Hong-jin intended.
So Is HOPE 2 Officially Happening?
Not yet.
And this is where expectations need to be careful.
Na Hong-jin has a sequel story and script, but production has not been officially confirmed. Recent reporting also says that his next project is expected to be a different, darker film before he potentially returns to HOPE.
In July, Na joked that he was ready if someone would give him the green light, while confirming that a possible second film would move much more deeply into the aliens’ story.
So the situation is unusual:
HOPE 2 exists as a story.
But it does not yet exist as a confirmed movie.
And There May Be an Even Stranger Direction
Recent Korean reporting has added another intriguing possibility.
Na has discussed expanding the story beyond the location of the first film and even floated the possibility of Hwang Jung-min’s character eventually heading toward North Korea.
Again, that is not confirmation of a finished sequel storyline.
But it shows how much larger Na imagines this universe becoming.
That makes sense when you remember where HOPE takes place.
This isn’t merely an alien story.
It’s an alien story unfolding near one of the most politically and militarily unusual borders on Earth.
If the scale expands, the geography itself could become part of the science-fiction story.
Maybe HOPE Was Never Really About an Alien Invasion
This is what interests me most.
After watching the first movie alone, it’s easy to describe HOPE as:
Humans encounter aliens. Chaos follows.
But Na Hong-jin’s comments suggest a more complicated structure.
The first movie shows what humans think happened.
The second could show what the aliens think happened.
And suddenly the same event may have two completely different meanings.
Who attacked first?
Who misunderstood whom?
Who believed they were defending themselves?
And who was actually the monster?
Perhaps HOPE isn’t building toward a bigger alien war.
Perhaps it is building toward something stranger:
the realization that we have only heard one side of the story.
That would explain why the aliens were performed by actors like Michael Fassbender and Alicia Vikander rather than treated simply as CGI creatures.
Na didn’t just need monsters.
He needed characters.
HOPE 2 Could Change the Meaning of HOPE
That is why I now find the unfinished feeling of HOPE much more interesting.
The movie may have ended before we received the aliens’ story because we weren’t supposed to understand them yet.
We saw them as outsiders.
They saw us as something else.
And somewhere between those two perspectives is the real story Na Hong-jin seems to be building.
Whether HOPE 2 actually gets financed and made remains uncertain.
But one thing is already clear:
Na Hong-jin didn’t reach the ending of HOPE and then suddenly start thinking about a sequel.
The larger story was already there.
And if Part 2 eventually arrives, the biggest surprise may not be another alien.
It may be discovering that we misunderstood the first movie because we were watching it from the wrong side.
If HOPE 2 shifts its focus toward the aliens, one of the biggest unanswered questions from the first film could become even more important: why did they come to Earth in the first place? Their original purpose may hold clues to where the story could go next. Explore why the aliens came to Earth in HOPE for a closer look at the mystery that could shape the sequel.