Sometimes I wonder if the upcoming high-profile drama Those Who Wear the Crown, Withstand the Weight: The Heirs (aka Heirs) is an elaborate joke. At some point someone is going to jump out and yell “Sucker!!!” for all those months spent discussing, debating, and dissecting a drama that reads like a cross between Gossip Girl and Boys Before Flowers starring two leads wayyyyyyy past high school in real age and cinematic experience and written by a screenwriter that has nearly ten hit K-dramas under her belt involving main leads age 30 and older (and in the case of her last drama A Gentleman’s Dignity, a whole lot older than 30 to say the least). It’s like Stephen King suddenly announcing he was creating a new MTV drama modeled after Glee. The collective “Huh” has been huge with this drama. With Lee Min Ho and Park Shin Hye onboard, the supporting cast is getting tons of attention since Jung Yong Hwa was offered the second male lead role and turned it down, and because this drama is set in an exclusive richest of the rich kids high school so the sprawling cast of high school rich kids is going to be rather important. Choi Jin Hyuk signed on to play Lee Min Ho’s older brother, wisely leaving those high school shenanigans for others to carry, and Kim Woo Bin and Krystal of girl group f(x) are onboard as well. This week there are a few more casting news to report, which further confirms this drama can’t be an elaborate joke I might wake up from. Hot from the teen music drama Monstar comes Kang Ha Neul, who plays the rich and reserved Sun Woo in that show, as well as idol group ZE:A member Park Hyung Sik, who was last seen in the twisty cable drama Nine: Nine Time Travels. He’ll also be playing a younger version of So Ji Sub in The Master’s Sun, so this boy is quite busy in this year alone with the acting. I think both adds fit the good looking haughty young man quota, but its the just released news that rising actress Kim Ji Won is signing on for Heirs that gets me truly excited. I really really like her (she’s adorable and looks like a young Kim Tae Hee doppleganger), and this would reunite her with Krystal when they both starred in High Kick 3: Counterattack of the Short Legs. This would also reunite her with Kang Haneul, both of them were part of the sprawling mostly idol cast of To The Beautiful You, the K-drama remake of HanaKimi. I think we’re maybe two young actors more from completing the cast which means timing is just about right. This drama is slated to air on SBS following The Master’s Sun, and to be followed by the Kim Soo Hyun alien drama Man from Another Star.
I like her, in certain angles she looks like KTH but I’d say she’s definitely the better actress. I loved her in What’s up (which is horribly underrated)and I heard she was good in High kick.
This drama does sound like a terrible joke, like the writer was high on something and just decided to make the crappiest sounding drama she could think of.
I might watch one ep just to see how craptastic it could be.
What’s Up was an awesome drama! I loved the entire cast, but she definitely is one of my favorites!
This is great looking cast.
The latest editions are younger than main leads, so it will be hard to believe them as classmates. I think Park Shin Hye will look somewhat believable as she is a female, she will be wearing a skirt. But i am worried about Lee Min Ho and Kim Woo Bin. They can’t wear skirts so they will look much older 🙂
Kim Woo Bin acted as a high school student in School 3013 and I think he was okay….
So … should they put on skirts? 😉
I’d like to see Lee Min Ho in skirt. 🙂
Didn’t you see Faith? LMH was wearing like robe/dress looking costumes! LOL! He was hawt though! LOL!!!
Hi@Pam!
I actually didn’t watch “Faith”, because it got a lot of negative comments. But now that you mentioned that skirt … I’ll have to have a look. Thankie! 🙂
Hi, BuddhaCat, you should definitely watch Faith! So much eye candy with LMH/Choi Young and his soldiers! Lol! Faith has some bad stuff (directing, editing and writing) but awesome supporting characters and one of my fave OTP because they had sizzling chemistry. You won’t regret it!
Both Kang Ha Neul and Park Sin Hye are born in 1990. So the female lead is not ing that old. But we have seen her played undergrad and young lady in her 20s before. Lets see if she is convincing in high school role.
Dont want to be rude. But sadly, I’m not a fan of Kim ji won. In TTBY, I think she kinda overacted and when I see her in tv or online she looks older than her age. But she has charms no doubt. I hope her character in heirs will prove me wrong.
And let me just say, I was so happy when I heard Kang Ha Neul will be part of the cast. So happy and excited for him. He’s talent is being recognized woot! I bet next time he’ll land a lead role.
Oh and I’m looking forward to the lovely Shin Hye hihi she’ll be forever my idol. 🙂
Heirs come faster!
oops who’s Jenna? It should’ve been Jenina lol! 🙂
his*
Lee min ho and Park shin hye have played mature roles but they still look very young….so I think they will not look odd as high school students…..
People say that LMH looks older than his age…hence that is why Kim Hee Sun and he looked all right next to each other in Faith, age gap wasn’t that visible.
Now how is he going to back track into being a high schooler like BOF? That doesn’t make sense! His talent agency needs to get with it!
Um Park Shinhye maybe but Lee minho, no. He didn’t even look like a highschool student back in BOF let alone now.
I really hope this drama isn’t hyped up for nothing! Poor LMH and the rest of the cast! Maybe the news should stop covering this drama for now? LOL!
I like her well enough (and both young Sun-woos too) and I smile inside at the thought of her and Krystal having a High Kick 3 reunion, but this drama could either be a trainwreck or a glorious mess. Either way, I’m watching!
More than the height and physique what really matters is their expressions,appearance and behaviour( how they think and act) in making them convincing. Many 18 year olds are their height and built. They will need to be good actors to carry it off.
KJW is a lovely actress and seems suited for this drama. I really have no issue with the stars only the setting. I don’t believe in looking back but can’t help the fleeting thought that comes to mind regarding Shinhye preferring this role over Sword and flower. 🙁 . But I am willing to eat my words and acknowledge KES as a writer worthy of her fame……….. if this drama turns out to be exciting for reason more than its beautiful cast. This drama I will not be able to leave because of Shinhye so I just wish it to be good one. October come soon!
This drama is simply a huge ball of mystery for me. I have no idea what to expect. I know that the scale of it is going to be huge… the question is: a huge success or a huge failure?
Maybe when the airing date gets near, all the actors will drop it one by one… and we’ll still be left wondering what it would have been like.
I wish they’d change the story so it would be about college students, not high school ones. It’s kind of ridiculous.
That was not a good photo of her. 🙁
YAY! I *love* her. <3
Don’t understand everybody’s diss on KES. I mean, her writing is nothing earth-shatteringly poignant and deep and all, but she IS good at creating witty, entertaining fluff out of seemingly non-plot. Better than tired old makjang tropes that clueless writers love to throw into the story when they run out of ideas, that means more than 50% of other kdramas out there! So I don’t understand why everyone seems out to prove her failure. Anyone wants to shed light on this?
You are right! Since I have not been able to completely finish any of her dramas except ‘City Hall’ I am not really qualified to judge her and i am not……….its just expectations only. City Hall did show witty dialogues and interesting unique plot ably supported by some good acting. Obviously, she is a good writer capable of all that you mentioned and more. It’s the BOF and specially Gossip Girl mix that I have reservations about. I wish she comes up with something totally her own without any reminders that lead us to comparing this drama with any other……. That’s all what I want from a renowned writer of her standing.
Better to set the bar low and be pleasantly surprised than set the bar high and be disappointed.
And now apparently I’m Joo-eun was added to the cast and I LOVE her http://m.news.nate.com/view/20130716n03175
I’m /still/ annoyed about the fact that Lee Min-ho is playing a high school student but dammit, this cast!!! How can I not look forward to it??
woahhh you’re kidding right? that’s it, I would check out this drama for her more than the others. Best thing about What’s Up is that it managed to find quite a few talented actors to round up its main cast. They’d better not give her a boring role!
I chuckle at how many more pretty young names they’re adding to this. She’s a welcome addition for me though. Kim Ji Won’s role in TTBY hasn’t spoiled my inexplicable fondness for her after What’s Up and High Kick, though she has a ways to go, as do some of the others already confirmed for the cast. (It also helped that I dropped TTBY.)
Hmm, Heirs seems really messed up at the moment. Age barriers are everywhere. At least everyone is rather fresh, good-looking (eye candy worthy), relatively experienced in acting for their age and the characters are sort of interesting. I guess I will just have to watch this without bearing in mind the actors/actresses’ actual ages. I really do hope that they do a quick switch to 5 years/10 years later or something, so that we don’t have to suffer too long with Lee Min Ho playing an 18 y/o…