Everything to Know About Mousetrap Before the Netflix Release: To wake up one morning and discover that the world no longer believes in you are you is highly unsettling and bothersome. Your phone does not recognise your fingerprint, your passwords do not work, and somewhere out there is another person who apparently has your name, identity and your entire life somehow.
This is a creepy nightmare that sits at the centre of Mousetrap, Netflix’s upcoming mystery thriller releasing on August 28, 2026. The title itself is pretty much as ominous as it sounds.
The drama itself is based on the Kakao webtoon Field Mouse, written and illustrated by Ludvico, which explores an old Korean folktale about a rat becoming a human double and drops it into a very modern identity-theft nightmare.
Everything to Know About Mousetrap: What Is Mousetrap Actually About?
At the centre of the story is Moon-jae, played by Ryu Jun-yeol, a novelist who has deliberately withdrawn from the outside world. He lives a quiet, isolated existence with the same routine every day until his life starts glitching.
The first major warning comes when his phone does not recognise his fingerprint; then his password stops working; his friend managing much of his life disappears. Before Moon-jae understands what is happening, he discovers that someone known as “The Rat” has taken his name and identity.
Moon-jae is not simply trying to expose someone, but he has to prove that he is actually himself. That sounds particularly weird.
The Korean Folktale Behind Mousetrap
Netflix’s Mousetrap takes inspiration from a traditional Korean folk story about a rat that eats a person’s discarded fingernail clipping and absorbs the young man’s vital life energy. This is amusingly a perfect folklore nightmare for a thriller about identity.
The original idea plays with the fear of being replaced by something that looks like you. Mousetrap gives the fear a makeover of 2026 and involves fingerprints, passwords, records and digital data that we now use to prove our existence. It is no longer just someone looking alike but someone becoming you.
The distinction makes the premise more unsettling.
Who Is Behind Netflix’s Mousetrap?
The series is directed by Kim Hong-sun, whose credits include The Guest, Voice, Money Heist: Korea – Joint Economic Area and Netflix’s Dear Hongrang. The screenplay is by Lee Jae-gon, with the series adapted from Ludvico’s webtoon Field Mouse.
You, however, do not need to have read the webtoon before watching the drama, but if you are the kind of person who enjoys comparing adaptations, there is definitely source material waiting for you.
How Many Episodes Will Mousetrap Have?
Netflix’s Mousetrap is set to have 10 episodes, with the series premiering on Netflix on Friday, August 28. All episodes are said to release simultaneously on the same day, which means this is very much shaping a binge situation for the weekend.
Semua orang jadi suspek dalam K-drama ni
Mousetrap bakal tiba di Netflix, 28 Ogos.
(1/4) pic.twitter.com/9yGqKaAQHA
— Netflix Malaysia (@NetflixMY) August 24, 2026
Considering the premise is built around the gigantic question of “who is The Rat?” releasing the whole story together feels almost dangerous because there would definitely be someone saying, “I would watch just one episode” only to stay awake throughout.
What Genre Is Mousetrap
Netflix categorises Mousetrap as “TV Mysteries, Crime TV Show”; thus, the series falls into mystery, crime and suspense territory. The central hook is identity theft, but the story appears to expand into a larger conspiracy.
This is not really a romance-first K-drama or a glossy melodrama but is a much darker, stranger and more paranoid situation.
Why Mousetrap Deserves To Be On Your Watchlist
The biggest draw is perhaps the premise that has a very old-school horror idea wrapped nicely in the modern thriller genre. The fear of being replaced is old, but Mousetrap understands that today you do not necessarily need someone to physically become you: they can access enough of you digitally to give an almost terrifying result.
The entire thing is based on a Korean folktale, which makes it even more interesting: how the folklore would come across on modern screens with a 2026 twist attached.
If the trailers are anything to go by, Mousetrap does not seem interested in letting its characters feel comfortable for very long because the scariest part is the possibility that by the time Moon-jae finds his identity has been stolen by The Rat, nobody will know which of them is original anymore.
Watch the Mousetrap trailers on YouTube.
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