WEBTOON is popping 6 fan-favorite webcomics into microdramas

Microdramas are having a second.

The bite-sized, vertically shot reveals pack soapy romances, billionaire fantasies, revenge plots, and outrageous cliffhangers, all constructed for the smartphone display screen. Already a large enterprise in China, the format has taken off within the U.S. on platforms like ReelShort and DramaBox by primarily condensing the emotional highs of a cleaning soap opera into the rhythms of TikTok.

Now, WEBTOON is getting in on the motion. On Aug. 17, the digital comics platform will launch Quick Dramas, a slate of six live-action vertical sequence tailored from standard romance webcomics, together with Possibly Meant to Be, Love Bites, and I am going to Marry Your Brother.

And if any leisure firm appears notably well-suited to the format, it is WEBTOON. Lengthy earlier than TikTok educated us to scroll by way of an countless feed of vertical movies, WEBTOON was getting tens of millions of readers accustomed to scrolling by way of serialized tales on their telephones.

“If you have a look at the DNA of microdramas when it comes to being episodic, when it comes to the hooks and the story tropes, and in addition the type of cliffhanger buildings, that DNA is actually much like WEBTOON webcomics,” Fred Lee, an govt at WEBTOON Leisure who oversees the corporate’s enlargement into vertical dramas, informed Mashable.

In different phrases, WEBTOON already taught tens of millions of individuals to scroll by way of tales. Now it is betting they’re going to scroll by way of TV, too.

Why WEBTOON is stepping into microdramas

Microdramas have exploded right into a booming nook of cellular leisure, attracting audiences with heightened feelings, acquainted tropes, relentless cliffhangers, and episodes quick sufficient to devour between TikToks. The format generated an estimated $11 billion globally in 2025 in response to analysis agency Omdia, whereas the U.S. has emerged as considered one of its most profitable markets.

WEBTOON has been watching. Lee stated the corporate started paying nearer consideration to the format over the previous yr as microdrama platforms attracted more and more giant audiences and constructed fandoms round their reveals. However he sees what’s taking place as greater than the recognition of anyone kind of microdrama.

For a lot of the format’s rise, microdramas have turn out to be synonymous with a selected form of storytelling: soapy, steamy romances constructed round immediately recognizable fantasies and dramatic twists. Lee believes these reveals are only one manifestation of a broader change in how audiences devour leisure.

“Viewers conduct is beginning to shift towards vertical video as a format in and of itself,” he stated, describing at this time’s dominant type of microdrama as “one subset” of what vertical storytelling may finally turn out to be.

That provides WEBTOON an fascinating opening. In contrast to firms constructed completely round microdramas, WEBTOON is not depending on vertical video turning into its major enterprise. As a substitute, Quick Dramas can exist alongside the webcomics folks already come to the platform to learn.

“We’re not solely constructed on microdramas,” Lee stated. “We have already got a longtime ecosystem, and internet comics are our core enterprise. So we’re not in the identical form of arms race.”

As a substitute, the corporate can begin with one thing many opponents need to manufacture from scratch: tales with established audiences.

“What units us aside is that we have already got these built-in fandoms, so we’ve got confirmed tales,” Lee stated.

After all, WEBTOON is beginning with romance

Should you’ve spent any time watching microdramas, WEBTOON’s resolution to make its complete first slate romance in all probability will not shock you.

The style has turn out to be foundational to the format, the place marriage contracts, forbidden relationships, revenge plots, billionaires, betrayals, and seemingly not possible romantic pairings can present an instantaneous hook.

For its first six variations, WEBTOON intentionally leaned into that urge for food whereas making an attempt to signify completely different corners of its romance catalog.

“We began with romance,” Lee stated. “Simply seeing that romance is so massive on this format, we needed to lean into that for our preliminary batch as nicely.”

The corporate additionally needed a mixture that might enchantment to completely different age teams, from YA and new grownup audiences to older romance readers. The slate consists of BL romance as nicely, a style Lee famous is already standard on WEBTOON.

Why does romance translate so simply to a format constructed round maintaining viewers watching for only one extra episode? Lee thinks a part of it comes all the way down to emotional effectivity.

“On the finish of the day, viewers wish to be moved,” he stated. “We’re all emotionally pushed. All of us reply to the identical form of emotional triggers, whether or not they be pleased or unhappy, and the whole lot in between.”

Romance, he added, gives a “curler coaster of feelings” notably suited to vertical video.

And WEBTOON actually is not quick on supply materials.

The 6 WEBTOON Quick Dramas launching Aug. 17

The primary Quick Dramas slate attracts from webcomics that collectively have attracted greater than a billion world views, starting from supernatural YA romance to revenge-fueled melodrama.

Love Bites

A shy 17-year-old vampire falls for the charming new boy at college, solely to find his crush is a werewolf — and due to this fact his species’ sworn enemy.

The BL romance stars Tristan Bilodeaux and Marc Ciccarelli and is directed by Daniel Russell, with a script by Kaelyn Armstrong and Tiffany Zhao. Ideali Initiatives produces.

Love Bites is predicated on the WEBTOON adaptation of the Wattpad romance webnovel Chew Me, which has reached greater than 146 million world views.

In different phrases: vampires, werewolves, forbidden romance. An irresistible mixture.

Possibly Meant to Be

After years of being pressured to cool down, a struggling freelancer impulsively proposes a wedding of comfort to her childhood buddy. Their faux relationship, naturally, begins feeling significantly much less faux.

Mashable Development Report

Molly Anderson and Zachary Rist star within the adaptation, directed by Miguel Ferrer and written by Armstrong and Zhao. A to Z Productions produces.

The unique Possibly Meant to Be is the largest webcomic represented in WEBTOON’s preliminary slate, with greater than 650 million world views.

It is also one of many slate’s extra easy romantic comedies, buying and selling a few of the heightened melodrama related to microdramas for the acquainted pleasures of childhood buddies, faux marriage, and two thirtysomethings slowly realizing the apparent.

Swolemates

A cocky influencer and a nerdy gamer woman start coaching collectively, just for their unlikely friendship to push them out of their respective consolation zones — and towards romance.

Eliana Fraser and Tyler Lawrence Grey star, with Eric Schwager directing from a script by Maxwell Warchol. Knockout Shorts produces.

The comedy webcomic Swolemates is predicated on has amassed greater than 60 million world views.

Guidelines for Relationship Trash

After a poisonous ex destroys her belief, a university scholar returns to campus decided to cease courting altogether. Then, as a result of this can be a romance, an irresistible dangerous boy reveals as much as problem these plans.

Halle Fletcher and Noah Andre star within the adaptation, directed by Elizabeth Jaleigh Davis and written by Evan Enderle. Apoorv Arora produces.

The unique romance webcomic Guidelines for Relationship Trash has reached greater than 140 million world views.

Soiled Deeds

A younger maid working at a mystical retreat for the rich has her quiet life disrupted by the brash inheritor to a strong conglomerate. Their relationship forces her to confront a traumatic previous whereas an inconceivable romance threatens each of their lives.

Jameson Leigh Muntz and Jordan Roy Frank star. Rhys Raiskin directs from a script by Warchol, with Vertical Romance producing.

The Soiled Deeds webcomic has attracted greater than 187 million world views.

I am going to Marry Your Brother

After which there’s I am going to Marry Your Brother, which can have probably the most microdrama-ready premise of all of them.

After her dishonest husband betrays her and steals her household’s firm, a rich heiress wakes up 5 years up to now — on her wedding ceremony day. Armed with information of what is coming, she vows to destroy her husband at any value, together with marrying his older brother as a substitute.

Mellisa Goodwin and Franky Cammarata star within the revenge romance, directed by Roku Lengthy and written by Warchol. Narval Movies produces.

Its supply webcomic has reached greater than 73 million world views.

Betrayal. Time journey. Revenge. A strategically chosen brother. Generally a premise actually does promote itself.

Turning lots of of tens of millions of views into a couple of minutes of video

After all, having confirmed IP creates one other downside: These tens of millions of readers already know these tales. Adapting a sprawling webcomic right into a microdrama means deciding which characters, arcs, and moments are important sufficient to outlive a way more compressed format.

“It is the identical with any adaptation the place the IP, particularly on the subject of books and internet comics, there’s much more within the story than is feasible to essentially inform within the AV adaptation,” Lee stated.

For every sequence, writers needed to study character arcs and story parts and decide what would work in vertical video. WEBTOON additionally contacted the unique creators about adapting their work, and Lee stated all six have been supportive of the tasks.

However the Quick Dramas aren’t supposed to interchange the unique tales. “The vertical movies will not be designed to supplant internet comedian readership,” Lee stated. “It’s a complement.”

Ideally, somebody who already loves Possibly Meant to Be will get to see its characters delivered to life, whereas somebody encountering the story by way of its Quick Drama may be compelled to hunt out the a lot bigger webcomic ready behind it.

WEBTOON needs that motion to go each methods. “You come for the net comics, you keep for the video episodes, you take a look at the microdramas, and you then come again to take a look at different internet comedian titles,” Lee stated, describing it as a “virtuous cycle.”

Microdramas transfer at a really completely different velocity

The reveals themselves could also be tiny, however making them nonetheless requires one thing recognizable as conventional filmmaking.

Lee describes his first expertise on a microdrama set as “probably the most chaotic ballet,” with writers, actors, administrators, producers, and crew working collectively a lot as they might on some other manufacturing.

“It is simply making an indie film on a extremely quick tempo,” he stated.

WEBTOON partnered with six manufacturing firms for the preliminary slate, with the reveals filmed in Los Angeles utilizing native manufacturing crews. Lee stated WEBTOON spent longer in growth than could also be typical for the microdrama trade, however as soon as the reveals entered pre-production, the method moved shortly: roughly three months from pre-production to supply.

That velocity is a part of the format’s enchantment. “From growth to completed product, it takes a fraction of the time to create one thing extra long-form,” Lee stated.

At a second when generative AI is more and more being pitched as one other strategy to make leisure sooner and cheaper, WEBTOON is drawing a line round how its first slate was made.

“All of our productions have been one hundred pc human-made,” Lee stated. “There’s nothing fairly like seeing human emotion on a human canvas.”

May a microdrama turn out to be the following step in Hollywood’s IP pipeline?

WEBTOON’s experiment will get extra fascinating once you look past these six reveals. The corporate has a large library of tales and an unlimited quantity of details about which of them have already attracted audiences. A webcomic can accumulate tens or lots of of tens of millions of views earlier than WEBTOON ever places actors in entrance of a digital camera. A microdrama offers it one other potential knowledge level.

Requested whether or not vertical dramas may finally function a proving floor for tales that may graduate to conventional tv or movie, Lee stated he sees the chance.

“Particularly once you have a look at a microdrama the place the fandom is loud and constant, I believe it will make a variety of sense to then have a look at the probabilities for a horizontal adaptation, whether or not or not it’s TV or movie,” he stated.

That creates a probably intriguing path for IP: A narrative can start as a webcomic, discover an viewers, turn out to be a comparatively quick and cheap live-action vertical sequence, and — if that viewers follows — probably make one other bounce into long-form leisure.

However Lee would not essentially see these codecs as a ladder, with one inherently extra useful than one other. “I believe the way forward for content material will not be siloed essentially,” he stated. “It is not essentially nearly internet comics, simply TV or movie. It is about constructing tales that may actually reside on all varieties of codecs.”

Is the way forward for TV vertical?

Spend sufficient time speaking to folks working in digital leisure proper now, and you may finally hear some model of the identical prediction: The long run is vertical.

For a whole era, holding a telephone upright is not an alternate manner of consuming leisure. It is the default.

“If you have a look at the youthful era, they’re actually cellular native from the get,” Lee stated. “They’re just about born with telephones of their fingers or telephones pointed at them… I believe transferring ahead, the long run goes to be in vertical content material.”

The larger guess is not merely that audiences will watch vertically — they already do. It is that they’re going to embrace the format for longer, serialized tales, too.

That does not essentially imply vertical dramas have to interchange conventional tv. The boundaries between webcomics, social video, microdramas, streaming sequence, and flicks are already turning into more and more porous. A narrative would not need to belong to a single format anymore, and neither does its viewers.

“There is not any finish to actually nice storytelling,” Lee stated. “Actually nice tales and actually nice characters can reside throughout codecs.”