With MBC‘s next Wed-Thurs drama Warm and Cozy premiering next week, the network must be relieved that the follow up drama Scholar Who Walks the Night finally locked down the main cast last month. I actually found the casting discussion changes surrounding Night Scholar even more exhausting than befell Kill Me Heal Me, now only time will show whether the end product of Night Scholar turns out as satisfying as KMHM despite the casting difficulties. In a sign of how fast time flies, Night Scholar starts production next week as male lead Lee Jun Ki wraps up his schedule and heads to the drama set.
Sageuk dramas typically need more prep time so it’s not a indication of quality concerns that the drama is filming now despite the air date still a ways out in July. The network released articles this week revealing which characters are being played by the cast and providing a short description. Lee Jun Ki is, of course, playing the titular male lead, a scholar (yangban) vampire named Kim Sung Yul who is over 150 years old and has been cursed to never age and drink blood as sustenance. He dedicates his life to protecting the stability of Joseon and has resigned himself to a life of loneliness until he meets the female lead. Beyond Jun Ki’s perfect casting, all the other castings take a big longer to get used to.
Lee Yoo Bi will be playing the female lead, the daughter of a fallen noble family named Yang Shan. She cross dresses as a male bookseller to make ends meet, with a dream of earning enough money to leave Joseon behind and go to the Qing dynasty. Kim So Eun plays two new characters not in the source manhwa, one is the first love of Lee Jun Ki from 150 years ago when he was still human, and the other is a noble woman in the present time line named Hye Ryung who is engaged to marry the Crown Prince.
Changmin is Crown Prince Lee Yun who finds himself in a love triangle with Yang Shan and Sung Yul, and has a fiancee in Hye Ryung. While Changmin’s character Lee Yun is in the original manhwa, he doesn’t have a love line with Yang Shan, while another male character does so it appears the drama is combining those two male characters into one. Lee Soo Hyuk‘s character is the vampire antagonist to Kim Sung Yul while Jang Hee Jin rounds out the main cast as a love-spurned gisaeng named Soo Hyang who is unable to realize her love for Sung Yul ever since he saved her as a child and raised her.
Lol good luck to this drama because there is still so much fighting going on between fans of the leading ladies
Yes so much fighting between KSE fans and LYB fans, and you know what else? several international netizens tried starting online petition against lee Yubi and Changmin to drop out of this drama….How pathetic! Lmao
Lmfao, omg it’s so stupid because no matter what they do the casting isn’t going change, and from the plot, both ladies play a huge part in this story so no one is getting the short end of the stick, people are so wrapped up on the “main” and “supporting” title
@Gina
Me too, I never saw I-netizens or even K-netizens do that to Yunho.
My friend made me watch all 24 episodes of Night Watchman. From my UN-biased point of view, Yunho improved and showed decent acting overall. He’s okay enough to get a pass, not bad at all. Even Koala said he was watchable and passably improved. I think he and Changmin are both okay actors who still have a long way to go.
lmao international netizens hold no sway at all over korean drama castings, it must take a special level of delusion to start a petition attempting to do something like that.
It’s not even like she’s a bad actress, they’re just mad that she isn’t Kim So Eun. And why the petition against Changmin? He’s not that good at acting but he isn’t even the lead, can they chill a bit.
@Gina
I don’t know why my comment keeps coming up on top instead of the bottom to continue the thread.
Me too, I never saw I-netizens or even K-netizens do that to Yunho.
My friend made me watch all 24 episodes of Night Watchman. From my UN-biased point of view, Yunho improved and showed decent acting overall. He’s okay enough to get a pass, not bad at all. Even Koala said he was watchable and passably improved. I think he and Changmin are both okay actors who still have a long way to go.
@anonymous – sure, Changmin is not a good actor but he’s not worse than Yunho, and I never saw any i-netizen petitions against Yunho’s casting in a drama.
It’s more ridiculous since he’s a supporting role at best.
Lmao Kim Son Eun fans annoys me so much… Starting from the WGM feud.
I quite like her but prefer lee yubi as the lead because although she is young she is quite a scene stealee in dramas she has been.
While kim so eun? Okay…
Yeah, the Kim So Eun fan contingent is larger and the international fans in particular are very riled up because of incorrect translations and vague articles that led them to believe KSE might be the leading lady (when no such thing was ever clearly mentioned). And the LYB fans are mad because she is caught in the crossfire and being trashed. It’s ridiculous.
Ridiculous, isn’t it? It’s not LYB’s fault that those articles were mistranslated. Personally, I’ve always had the impression that KSE was up for another role the moment the news of her casting broke out. They shouldn’t have gotten their hopes up in the first place.
Lmao! Whats wrong with KSE fans? I’m fine with LYB as female lead, she can act…poor her!
If I were Lee Junki, I woulda passed on this one. The story sounds so juvenile. Well maybe it will give more fans in the teeny bopper age group.
Exactly. The drama sounds so meh already and these fanwars just make it sound more like a fail. I definitely wouldn’t want to be strung along a fanwar b/w fans who act like pre-puberty teens. And that goes for both sides – so immature it makes me laugh.
Actually if you read the manhwa it’s not juvenile at all. Imo, it’s rather gory and scary, and yet amusing, romantic, sad and angsty, with an addicting story. Several characters are extremely fascinating. It’s so interesting that it made me read up on Korean history!
Now, if only the drama script can do the manhwa justice.
I really don’t understand how fanwars can make a drama a fail?
And Lee Junki already accepted way before these ladies came into the picture!
Can you pls inform us where you get info that kimso fans creating petition against lee yubi and changmin coz I cant see it , are you flaming fan wars here? Fyi some kimso fans are now shipping chagmin and kimso and as for yubi i dont know her so i have no comment bout her being the female lead coz I wont watch this drama anyway but since your creating shit issues her which is not true then you should stop ok
What’s done is done and Lee Yubi is already the female lead whether they like it or not. Trashing the other actress for the sake of showing their undying support for their bias won’t do them any good. If anything, they are only doing absolute disservice to their bias and putting her in a bad light.
@belle – I agree. People have been saying the most deluded things about this casting, and some of them are too far fetched to even make sense.
Neither actress has ever shown a bad performance in a drama so far, it’s ridiculous to me that people are declaring one (usually LYB) will suck and doesn’t deserve the lead role before the drama has even shot a single frame.
I mean, even the most useless idol actresses book lead roles and no one gets mad about them, but a rookie actress with a decent track record gets her first lead role and suddenly everyone is so sure she looks too young (the character is supposed to be young and playing opposite a 150 year old) and can’t act (when the most praise she ever got was for her last sageuk).
EXO’s DO, lee joon, Im Siwan, eunji are considered the best idol actors. I posted another response to your comment above.
The bad idol actors get a lot of hate, but in the end, the K-netizens still defend them even in subtle ways and the fans defend them too.
@anonymous – idol actors and actresses get defended way more by international fans than non-idol rookie actors get. Only the untalented ones get hate for jumping to lead roles without much or any previous experience, and even then fans will excuse sucky acting as being the result of a young age or lack of experience.
You never see idols like Im Siwan, Exo’s DO, Lee Joon, Yoon Doojoon, Jung Eunji, Yook Sungjae or Uee, to name just a few, getting this kind of hate.
@anonymous – no worries, I saw your response.
I hope the fans from both ends calm down, Kim So Eun’s being a so called “fake” on WGM has nothing to do with her acting in dramas. And as for Changmin and Yoobi, they at least deserve for people to see the first ep of the drama before calling them names for a bad performance.
@Gina
@Gina
Oh, okay 🙂 I just hope you saw my 2 comments, one about idol actors and the other about Changmin’s band mate.
It’s a pain how so many people on asianwiki are complaining about so many things. They called lee Yubi a bad actress. They said she has no chemistry with lee jun ki and she looks like a little kid next to him. They complained kim so eun is playing supporting role and playing a character not even in original manhwa. Lastly, they said Changmin is the worst actor among the four main leads.
Fans should chill out. Seems both ladies have characters who are going to give them plenty to do.
Yeah they need to calm down. I wished Kim So Eun was the lead and I am pretty upset Lee Yubi is Instead but I’m not gonna go around signing petitions and trashing Lee Yubi for it LOL!
Better than Warm and Cozy on every single things.
Honestly warm and cozy does not seem interesting to me, just another typical romantic comedy, and from the poster and teaser the leads dont have no chemistry, lets see if the drama actually changes my opinion.
I like lee yubi better. She is a more likable actress. Kim so eun is giving me too many fake vibes (just my opininon)
I actually agree with you with her giving fake vibes
LYB IS DEFINITELY NOT MORE LIKABLE THAT KSE. KSE IS WAY BETTER, EARNING POINTS BY WORKING HARD FOR YEARS. BUT LYB? JUST A PUPPY IN HER DRAMAS SO FAR, NOT EVEN STEALING SCENES. SHES LUCKY BECAUSE OF HER MOM, AND FEW OF HER PAST DRAMAS POPULARS AND HIGH RATED BECAUSE OF OTHER STARS, NOT BECAUSE OF HER.
I also support Lee Yoo Bi. She is cool and is lead actress material. Kim So Eun is cute but her acting is dull.
I have nothing against Lee yoo bi ( I’ll give my opinion when I see the drama) .. I’m kim soeun fan and I know she’s really a good actor + she agree to do this role ( I can’t understand why fans are upset or hate ??) anyway kim soeun fighting ~~*
If Lee Jong Suk can act well opposite veteran actress Lee Bo Young, Lee Yoo Bi can also opposite Lee Jun Ki (Damn. All those Lees!). She has potential. I will wait for the first episode before I pass judgement.
Well….seems that there is hope for Kim So Eun’s character; Hye Ryung to be evilly conflicted in Vampire Scholar. I am keeping my fingers cross for this to happen cause i’m tired of seeing her play ‘safe’ characters. KSE is the only reason i’m tuning i. I don’t care if she’s the lead or second as long as her character is interesting. (Where do ppl get these info bout the fan feud?)
The way the character love square is being set up, Hye Ryung could very well turn into Gisaeng #2. Her fiance the Crown Prince loves Yang Shan. And Sung Yul will eventually end up liking Yang Shan too. If Hye Ryung ends up marrying the prince, she would only gain status but not love. I’m hoping her conflict would be something similar to Honey Lee’s character in Shine or Go Crazy. If she eventually remembers her past love with Sung Yul, will Hye Ryung choose her yangban pride and duty over love for Sung Yul? Or sacrifice everything for love? And if she chooses love, will her yangban pride stop her from going down the murderous route like the gisaeng since she her status could grant her some leverage to cut down her rival. Initial reports said that KSE’s character has a tragic loveline. I wonder if she will die in the end….
To be honest the 2nd roles are more creative than lead roles and make the story more interesting I want to say the lead roles are being more typical nothing new only make the fans are crazy about leading roles bcz the couple shipping nothing more , I hope the drama fans especially international to not to overrate everything I read many comments which make me nauseating bcz how much they attack the lead actress and the way of thinking very immature ; children are fighting .
I am exited nevertheless. two of the hottest vampires ever, let me… take a moment here…. pheef. curious about the gisaeng character.
but how does he let someone he saved and raised become a gisaeng?
um… ok.
if they are starting so soon it means pictures of LJK in sageuk clothes soon. aaah omg *bounces*
LOL, have you been practising your cartwheels and handstands? Read on Soompi the first shooting is on May 10. So, hope we’ll get some stills soon.
I always thought that there was an inbalance of male vs female main characters in the manhwa with 5 main male characters vs 2 females. So, I guess it makes sense to combine the fiance’s and crown prince’s characters into one to make the characters “meatier”. But I hope the crown prince retains his fun and interesting personality rather than take on the fiance’s serious one.
This particular crown prince had an epic love story in Lee San, so let’s hope that he will have an epic love line with KSE’s character.
But where is the hunter, we need him for the bromance!
KSE fan here. I may be in the minority, but I can’t wait for KSE to slay the role. Leading lady or not, I’m quite excited to see her step out of the innocent darling thing. Let’s not speculate who is going to do well. Let’s just wait and see 😉
Wooow reading these kind of comments makes uncomfortable at all!!! I’m KSE fan, seriously just from where did u get these ideas???? even who is not KSE fans were prefer her .. If u read her fans tweets or visit KSE fans page everything is cool ( especially after we knew what the role she will play ) I don’t know why people keep saying that KSE fans are pushing other cast .. ( dude their are some people who prefer KSE but it doesn’t means they are her fans tho) .. Sigh* the actors became friendly while we are fighting… let us wait for the drama and support the cast
Fightingggggggg
I will probably be watching this just for LEE YU BI. Other actors/actress/storyline does not interest me whatsoever.
Not even LJK? How is that even possible? You will probably change your mind after watching him. Then you will join in this huge affection for our multi talented ninja master with the rest of us. I have faith in his captivating performance as always.
Lee Soohyuk ♡♡♡
antagonist role at that. i hope he slays the role.
above all, i hope they have a very tight script and a beautiful story cuz even if they have 10 Lee Jun Kis in the drama, nobody could save a story with a weakass script. so good luck Scholar!
p/s: lookin forward for all the casts’performance. cant wait for the glorious fanwar. make it happen!
Lee Yoo Bi needs some color on her face. She should play the vampire for all we know. Girl needs a good California tan.
international KSE fans are not hating the female lead..some are just making this issues..for now, we are okay with her role
though it seems that mbc is just using her popularity just like sjr in unkind women
Is yoobi more popular tha so eun in korea?
in fact , KSE is more popular than yoobi ..
and that’s why K-fans was so angry
( you can find the translate for the comments tho)
Hmmm I thought the audience liked Lee Yu Bi. What happened? Why are they against her?
Lee yubi for me.
Kim seo eun acting is so so. That’s why ahe never got popular.
Lee yu bi at least have been supporting roles in dramas which are successful and made her known.
This drama doesn’t need to mention Kim So eun to gain attention or popularity. Lee jun ki is the one with fame here.
Can you pls check kimsoeun acting awards in wikipedia before you say her acting is dull
I cant wait for this drama. I prefer Lee Yu Bi though. I can’t wait to see Lee Jun Ki in vampire mode! This man can portray any character that’s thrown at him! And Lee Jun Ki always has chemistry with main actresses so it doesn’t really matter if it’s Lee Yu Bi. But, I’m kind of tired of Kim So Eun. She can act but she’s a bit dull. I just hope Changmin can act better in this drama. He can act but he doesn’t have that “on screen presence” and he’s a bit stiff
@Mellisa kim so eun is really popular in Korea !!
and k-articles comments prove that !!
she also filming china movie right now + candidate for the the popular Award so plz if u know nothing about her don’t type (focus in LYB)
kim soeun also has successful dramas (BOF, hours doctor, girl grave movie ..etc) and have awards as well
Mellissa didn’t say that Kim So Eun isn’t popular. She is merely asserting that netizens should stop assuming that the production team is using Kim So Eun’s popularity to attract potential viewers because Lee Jun Ki’s popularity alone is enough to lure the audience.
Scratch that, it was indeed argued that KSE isn’t popular. Anyway, I still agree that netizens should stop with their assumptions that KSE’s name is being used just to attract viewers. LJK is a big enough name to garner a satisfying percentage of audience.
Yes! I dont get why her fans think like that? LJK alone is enough. He is really big plus he A-list actor and i heard he has over 16 million followers in weibo.
Poor kim so eun. When k-netz hope she get the leading role, her fans being hars for yubi and jin se yeon fans. I’m sorry for saying, but soeun fans just a little fandom, we naver talk about petition, that’s why, from the first time our soeun just and always get the supporting role and we are happy about that, cause we still can see her. And about k-netz comment we very thankfully about that, cause their see a good acting skill soeun has. But the hater gona be hate, wtf soeun do she just get bashing. As you know our soeun just want to be a good actress not the popular one, so she never care about supporting and leading role, cause she always do what she one. You can see when people get so much project after wgm, she just get a little, our soeun never care about popularity, same as her fans, we support her whatever she want. Being her fans for 7th years, this is the first time we got so much hurt comment from other fandom, cause people never look at her, when she got support from k-netz she just got bashing from people, as you know soeun’s fans in korea can count with your finger, it’s couse she mush hasn’t fans in korea. The comment you see pure from k-netz who like her acting skill. I know you just know her in wgm and BOF , you don’t know her, so don’t bad mouthing her.
See our soeun hasn’t have popularity at all, and in korea her fans just a little, but some k-netz can she her acting skill. Yubi more popular we can she from people comment. Our soeun just a human who can acting wtf she want, our soeun, always being soeun. Who never care about the hater, and her career too. Ask you know, someone tell me about how easy soeun get leading role if she want, but you can see, she just acting with character she want. Soeun isn’t popular cause she never want to. You can see her interview she do about popularity. But if you hate her, I don’t care anymore, but don’t bad mouthing her, cause she always read comment about her. What do you feel if your bias being bashing. Soeun fans never bashing people cause we never get bashing from other fans too. But, event our soeun get bashing we never bashing other artist cause soeun will hate her fans for being immature. If your artist get bashing, it’s not from soeun fan, maybe from your artist hater or their bashing your artist cause they see you bashing other artist too.
Soeun fans never care about the lead role after all. We are happy with the supporting role, cause our soeun always get the supporting role. And with the leading lady, we never care too, if you mad about the comment from k-netz tell them not soeun fans. Soeun fans never bashing other artist. The pure soeun’s fans just care about soeun not the other, I said pure not the shipper one.
Dude hating kimsoeun can you pls state where you get info creating issues about ifans creating petitions against lee yubi and changmin coz I can’t see it in search engine if your creating issue just to hype up fan wars , personally I’m a fan of kimso and I am not from Korea but im Canada but I’m so clueless about your rants so if your making up issues then shut up , if you don’t like kim so eun fan then their is no way for us to like you too…
crossing my fingers for KSE to get a meaty role that she’ll enjoy acting!! also i love all the passive-aggressive barbs we’re slinging out on the cast members. you can think KSE is the dull and fake and you can think LYB is too young and unpopular for the role because neither actress will be affected by whatever you guys are saying, okay? so let’s just simply enjoy the drama when it airs.
will be in for Kim So Eun and Lee Jun Ki.. 😀
hello, if you want to stop all the bad mouthing / bashing etc about either LYB or KSE, stop commenting anything negative here…
just comment positively, and peacefully and never start the fan war again.. for those who are already at war, just let them be. OK..
Love peace, no war.. just enjoy the show.. 😛
If YOU guys call yourself as A FAN of whoever will appear in this drama. Please just support the drama whatever happens. Let’s just watch peacefully and mount up the ratings, ok?
You know what, the story in itself is interesting. Let’s just stop with all these fanwars! It won’t help the drama rise in any way at all.
Looking forward to Joon Gi’s acting~ I just know he’ll slay this role beautifully. As always! He’s an A-list actor godammit! Please just let the script give justice to the manhwa. I trust the director too. Please let this series be popular. Let Joon Gi save the day! Haha
Btw, both actresses have good roles and I think we can only judge them based on their acting prowess so we’ll have to wait for the first episode of the drama folks! Let’s all support this!<3