2025 • TMDB 7.2 • 1 season, 8 episodes • Crime, Mystery, Drama
Overview
Detective Cha Su-yeol has spent his adult life trying to outrun his own name. His mother, Jeong Yi-shin, is the infamous ‘Mantis’, a serial killer whose crimes made her a household nightmare, and Su-yeol became a police officer in part to prove he is nothing like her. That resolve collapses when a copycat killer begins recreating the Mantis murders, and the only person who can read the killer’s mind is the woman behind bars who taught him, by her absence, how to fear. Reluctantly, Su-yeol turns to his mother for help, and their uneasy alliance becomes a test of trust, guilt and blood: can a son use a killer’s insight without becoming what she made him? Queen Mantis is a tense, darkly fascinating crime thriller about inheritance, obsession and the thin line between hunting monsters and understanding them.
Creator and Main Cast
Queen Mantis was created by Byun Young-joo for SBS. The cast includes Go Hyun-jung as Jeong Yi-shin (8 episodes), Jang Dong-yoon as Cha Su-yeol (8 episodes), Cho Seong-ha as Joong-ho (8 episodes), EL as Na-hee (8 episodes), Kim Bo-ra as Lee Jung-yeon (8 episodes) and Lee Hwang-eui as Jung Hyeon Nam (8 episodes).
Seasons Snapshot
Queen Mantis has 1 season with 8 episodes. Season 1 premiered on September 5, 2025, and ended with Episode 8 on September 27, 2025.
Why Watch Queen Mantis?
Queen Mantis is worth watching because its central relationship is genuinely unsettling: a detective who despises his mother must rely on her, and every clue she offers comes with a question about what she wants in return. Go Hyun-jung is magnetic as Yi-shin, calm where others would be theatrical, and Jang Dong-yoon matches her with a performance full of barely held anger. The copycat case keeps the tension high across just eight episodes, with no filler to dilute it, and the show never lets you forget that the most dangerous person in the room may also be the most useful. For crime-thriller fans, this is a sharp, bingeable one-season story.
Trailer
Watch the official teaser on YouTube: [TEASER] An Infamous Killer Is About To Be Freed… | Queen Mantis | KOCOWA+
Where to Watch
In the US, Queen Mantis streams on Netflix, Rakuten Viki, OnDemandKorea and the Kocowa Amazon Channel, including free with ads on Rakuten Viki. Availability was checked against JustWatch US listings on October 30, 2026, and may change over time.
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