Holy drama casting gods this is HUGE news! Just released from military service Lee Min Ho has confirmed his first comeback project and it’s a doozy. While others who served at the same time as him including Ji Chang Wook, Im Shi Wan, and even Kang Ha Neul have all been rumored for projects and later confirmed their respective comebacks, it was mum for Lee Min Ho and I figured maybe he was looking to do something low key and maybe experimental, yunno something different. Looks like he is going all in for the current Hallyu trend which means working with top drama screenwriter Kim Eun Sook again after the two hit ratings and buzz magic with high school drama Heirs (He Who Wishes to Wear the Crown, Endures Its Weight). Lee Min Ho is confirmed as the male lead for Kim Eun Sook’s next drama airing in Spring 2020 now revealed with the title The King: Eternal Sovereign. Unlike her last drama Mr. Sunshine which was a somber period patriotic tearjerker, The King harkens back to the fantasy genre Kim Eun Sook did with The Goblin and Secret Garden. It’s about parallel universes and the question posed – would you switch if the parallel universe you is living a better life?
In a fantasy world, the Gods have released the Devil into the world and the Devil has opened the doors between parallel worlds. If the other me in the parallel world is living a better life, would I choose to switch? This drama is about this conundrum posed by the Devil choosing to open the door between worlds. The King wants to close the door and a Cop just wants to protect his life, friends, and love, the two will have to work together and the story unfolds from there.
Holy sh*t can’t wait for this drama. I’m already hyped af
I knew it!!!!! Omg Popular, post military, big return, big hype. Definitely in her lane. I’m pumped!!!! I still hope she gets Kim Soo Hyun too though.
Holy sht holy cow this looks great omggg make it faster pleasee arggghh
Noooooooo! Just no! LMH used to have the “It” factor but the last kdrama he really threw himself in was Faith. Now he just goes through the motions with little passion in his roles. I’m wondering if he’ll bring his A game to this role, or if he’ll fizzle out like Heirs where he was overshadowed by KWB. Honestly, I was hoping KES would break with convention and choose a relative unknown with oodles of talent. I confess to being disappointed with this casting news. Keeping my fingers crossed and hoping his performance in this drama surprises me into believing in him once more. Now, I wonder who is up for second lead?
I agree with @adal about KES who should break with convention. Since KES is known for being an award winner and also boosting the actors’ ranking, it would be nice and a good challenge if only she would choose actors of less well-known or at least actors who have not been cast in her drama for eg Ji Chang wook etc
I like LMH but he was already done her drama, Heirs.
Moreover why the need to cast top notch actors when KES dramas is already typecast as a Winner by itself. It would be fair to have actors of slightly lower ranking than a top top notch
I have to disagree with you because LMH was amazing in LOTBS it was the script that was boring. KES has a rule about working with A-list stars she has said so herself that she doesn’t want to work with anyone except the most popular stars and directors. She has a standard and she intends to maintain it and her dramas don’t work because of her scripts which are always the same or similar they work because she promises a blockbuster which includes casting a big name actor, director and big budget. Plus she has a type and she basically always casts her fantasy male actor the ones she is extremely fond of (basically the ones she fan girls over).
Why would you even think she will consider newcomers. Just look at her previous dramas.
Maybe yes for female leads but her male leads has been nothing but A-list actors.
Why am i not surprised ? KES still going with the same formula. I like Lee MIN HO but i was hoping for something new. But aside City hall ( really good) and a gentleman’s dignity i never finish one of her dramas .
I knew it. I knew it.
I am so excited. OMG!!! I can not wait. The plot seems very interesting.
This is epic! can we get Song Hye kyo as his leading lady. Excited for this one.
It will be all lmh, the female lead will just be a decoration, maybe they will get a strong and popular 2nd lead male too,
Its depend, PSH get Popularity awards in baeksang because of the heirs, LMH not.
That isn’t relevant because she was winning popularity awards even before Heirs the drama added nothing to her portfolio. It was only Minho who majorly benefited from it while Shinye was typecast as a ‘bad candy actress’ ever since the Heirs.
Huh added nothing?
Without Heirs she wouldn’t have had the public recognition in Korea and her subsequent dramas wouldn’t get high ratings. Before Heirs her drama were flops. Her popularity in China also went up with Heirs.
Hate is irrelevant.
Heirs was the turning point in her career what you talking about?
Hmm…the storyline sounds similar to Goblin…with the whole God + Human concept. Who’s playing God? hmm…another bromance…
Really shocking from Leebyunghyun to Leeminhoo. I’m think kes will choose the lead from chungmuro again.
I’m more shocked by the comments on this thread than this news. The writer is famous, she can command and demand for who she thinks will bring her brand up. Lee Min Ho is very popular, why wouldn’t KES utilize him?
I’m excited for LMH and patiently waiting for who his leading lady will be.
Oh… Why him? In all her male leads, he was the weakest : Gong Yo, Hyun Bin, Song Joon Ki, Jang Dong Gun and Cha Seung Won. At least Kim Won Bin was really great in Heirs, he was so more charismatic than Lee Min Ho.
I agree with @Adal, Faith was the only role where he really shined.
I almost think she will cast PBG. When they mentioned actor in their 20 and 30, its like PBG and actors in their 30s lol. Because PBG is the only one in KES radar. If she didnt want him, she will just mentioned an actor in their 30s. KES is kinda predictable. But I’m happy she didnt cast him, PBG didnt need more popularity.
Btw I’m going to give this try, sound good.
Pbg will start shooting a movie same timeline for kes drama, and she like lmh,maybe she offer to him 1st and he accepted it,maybe all her drama will be offer to him 1st,lol
After heirs she offered dots, he declined, maybe if he wasnt in the military even mr sunshine,juts joking though.
Uh what? She offered dots to lmh? Are you sure? this is the first time I heard about this. For what I know its JIS who declined dots
Wait, so you mean gongyoo is her second cast for goblin? What a joke. Btw no I dont believe you. And I never heard any news about LMH declined dots. Source first. I know about GY and WB btw
Yup they all decline coz its a soldier role, even sbs was afraid to take it,
Its not only jis, kwb,gy,wb too.
Coz gy was offered dots too it means she is 1 of her fave and nope goblin wasnt offer to anybody except gy coz he readily accepted it, the difference for dots was nobody wants to do it,not becoz of kes but the soldier theme.
I think her 1st choice for most of her dramas are Won Bin and then GY and after that comes everybody else. For Mister Sunshine her 1st choice was always LBH since he speaks english well or so she has said.
Dude, you said maybe all of her drama will be offer to LMH first. What are you talking about? I know KES offered dots to GY then WB then JIS after that JIS is the one who recommended SJK to her, LMH never get cast in dots, media will be busy talking about that. its not true. You think too high for him. I’m sure he is not the first one to get cast in this drama too. Even the plot not fit with LMH’s image.
Lol i wasnt even a lmh fan, who is talking highly of him?, coz kes have favorite to cast thats why i commented that,during dots run so many articles that came out, i dont even believe she will offer it to lmh since her last drama was him,and base on the assumption she will not cast any of them twice, but look what happen, she just casted him, no bruhahaha abt him in talks, no other actors mention, its straight confirmation just days after they announce kes new drama.and to say that he didnt fit the role, isnt that kes problem with sjk at 1st.
They need to revive Hallyu which is virtually in decline since he went to serve. Good luck LMH and KES! It won’t be easy because China has better and younger actors than him. LMH will need to brush up on his acting if he has two roles in this drama.
She missed out getting Best Writer or Best Screenplay on major awards for many years now. Though DOST got the Daesang but it was not her own recognition but the production’s as a whole. I think she was eyeing the Baeksang Best writer award for Mr Sunshine but unfortunately only Lee Byung Hyun got all the recognition which I don’t understand why he kept getting Best Actor award for his performance in that drama. Now she is projecting this drama to be more critically mature again. So fingers crossed and goodluck to her.
Lee Byung Hun needs to be recognized in every award ceremonies in Korea, otherwise the sky would fall in SK. I still couldn’t wrap my brain on him winning over LSK. Not that i am being sour, but the other actor totally more deserving.
hahaha… LBH is the sleezy cheating celebrity ahjussi of SK, KES is the cheesy cringy star writer of SK. best representation of a country full of scandals now.
Hope she casts lee se young or lee sung Kyung opposite to lee min ho. Even shin se kyung
I wonder who the leading lady will be? Suzy? Who knows LMH and her look good enough together; went out as well so I guess if sparks fly once again let it be in front of a camera. Yep I want Suzy mainly because….I dunno I want to see 2 perfect human beings act alongside one another and see how this eventuates. The storyline reminds me of Keanu Reeves 2005 movie ‘Constantine’.
Suzy ?
The only good thing that came out of Heirs is Kim Ji Won. I’m kinda indifferent to this writer, never really like her works. Is there any chance KJW schedule will work out for this? probably not..
Heirs was remarkable for everyone except LMH and PSH.
Maybe it was their characters written poorly. Else heirs gave us
Kim ji won
Kang ha neul
Kim woo bin
Park hyu shik
Choi jin huk
Krystal and kang min hyuk.. They were cutest
??
I agree with Kim Woo Bin, it was first time i see him in anything. His and KJW characters were highlight to me despite poor developing. As for others, their roles were just not memorable to me. They have way better projects after Heirs.
Whoever the female lead is LMH will outshine because this feels like KES harking back to her usual trope of super alpha male lead who controls the entire story verse. Potentially SHK might be the female lead but KJW is just as likely since KES is obviously fond of her.
As someone who watched most of kes’s dramas, some of her dramas also focused on female lead. On air for example. Lovers in paris too. Secret garden god badass female character. And mr sunshine too. Even the title is Mr. Sunshine but Kim Taeri’s character was pretty good. Most of koreans want a pretty daughter like her bcuz of her character in Mr. Sunshine.
The heirs and goblin probably got poorer female characters. But try watching other dramas of her.
All the comments here say that in KES drama actress is just for namesake or decorations and in previous post about KES drama everyone was cast kim so hyun. Her acting is daebak. What they want kim so hyun as? Just decoration?
Hypocrisy at best.
Extremely talented actresses like JDY, HJW and KTR were KES leading ladies so why not KSH? I doubt anyone wants her cast opposite LMH but in the future I would definitely vote for her as lead for KES drama. Irrespective of how badly KES writes her female leads she always delivers on the romance aspect so why should an actress of KSH potential or any other talented A list actress not capitalize on the star power of a KES drama? Your argument doesn’t have any sense.
LOL!!! You think people asking for Song Hyekyo, Park Shinhye and Kim Jiwon for female lead are just for decoration? How delusional are you to believe that?
Basically everyone wants their faves to be KES’s lead because its instant fame, decoration or not.
Unless your fave is Song Hyekyo or Jun Jihyun level already.
Nah I don’t know. I’m abit ambivalent it after Song joong Ki my fav got a massive fame. Gosh i have to wait him for years just to see him on small screen again. And it s*cks. I want to see my fav getting acknowledge and got a massive popular. But man. The Consequences of not see them for years doing any acting work. Just seeing them doing endorsement and cf.
Or the dissapointment of them no longer putting passion into their performances just because they already got fame like Kim So Hyun case.
Yeah bad habit of K-ent… Long hiatuses for top stars. Sometimes I envy fans of Kim Sohyun, Yeo Jingoo, Jang Hyuk etc.
Kim Sohyun? Do you mean Kim Soohyun?
Just curious, which project did you find disappointing?
Kim So Hyun already got fame? Girl shes been working her butt off for the last 11 years to be where she is today and she still has her entire twenties to get through. She consistently puts in effort for all her performances and you can literally see the growth in her acting. Her and Yeo Jin Gu have had a very tough time getting to their adult lead status but they have been working super hard and consistently doing new roles to shed the child actor image and it has finally started to pay off. I think they can both do well in their careers even without a Kim Eun Sook drama but simply for their constant hardwork and dedication to acting they deserve to hit it big and if a Kim Eun Sook drama is the way to do that then so be it. The work ethic they have shown despite their young age deserves to be well rewarded.
I thought they wanted Kim soohyun the guy serving in the army rn.
@Minnie; what I Mean is Kim Soo Hyun the male version. Sorry doesn’t explained it to you. Since dream high his perfomances is very lackluster. Just like my dissapointment in jang geun suk after you re beautiful. The project they choose is for the sake of popularity only. JGS at least has Jackpot. But Kim Soo hyun? Ugh so frustating.
Producers and Real were lacklustre and for popularity? You obviously have something against the guy.
Why the hell do people keep asking for fresh faces I don’t understand. What are these Hallyu superstars supposed to do then? You don’t want anyone to cast them after all the work they put into becoming major stars now you don’t like them because they have massive popularity and get all the major big budget scripts. Damned if you do damned if you don’t. People can never be satisfied its dumb of you to think fresh faces are better actors than veteran hallyu stars pr they deserve to be cast ahead of them. All these big hallyu stars climbed up from the bottom they deserve their fame and massive salaries.
Peri you win First place at the Comment section Awards!
Yeah those fresh faces can work their way up before getting those big-budget offers. Don’t understand some people’s complaints seriously.
Exactly! This whole fresh face thing needs to go! What did these actors do so wrong that people always keep demanding a fresh face! I like my familiar faces just fine thank you!
New faces doesn’t mean rookies but not always choosing the top . If i understand , only big stars deserve great productions because the others didn’t have work enough . Well i suppose that the directors of Marvel cinematic universe may have lost their mind when they choose “no big names” in 2008 RD JR, both CHRIS, Mark Ruffallo, Tom Hiddelston… , when the creators of Sherlock choose B Cumberbatch and martin Freeman, Tom holland as Spiderman…Leonardo di caprio and Kate Winslet in 1997 for Titanic
Thanks to all of thèses producers, directors,…we discovered new gems who did an amazing job with their characters without being ” hardworking top stars ” !!! I forgot, how could they give the roles of ” game of thrones” to unknown actors ! Familiar faces is good , i have nothing against it but don’t say that’ s because they deserve it, a lot of hardworking and very good actors exist but they don’t get the chance to be recognized if everyone thinks as KES.
@cahill No. New faces deserve only supporting roles. Casting them in main roles is a risk only some producers will take, and KES isn’t one of them. Stick to Western shows since you like their casting method so much lmao.
@anna i said new faces ( actors less known but with more experience) not rookies who have to improve before getting big roles. And sorry but i like to discover a lot of things not only western or korean stuff.So i’d stick everywhere. Not taking risks ! LOL thanks god some people like to search or experiment , if not we would’t have diversity. That’s the problem nowadays Young people tend to stick with what’s popular. And i take marvel as an ex because it’s known worldwide , perso it’s not my cup of tea.
i love your comment! very very true????
Actually these people only seem like sore losers because their faves didn’t get cast. Haha. Too bad they arent the director or producer.
Lee min ho holly cow!!!…. not a bad choice at ALL. I am coming back to watching kdrama again. cant wait
Since this is a KES drama, I won’t be surprised if LHM will be a second lead in this drama just like Lee Dong Wook to Gong Yoo. He’a been away for so long and maybe maybe he may have lost a little mojo. So they may need another hallyu actor.
No way he is 2nd lead, they announce his confirmation 1st, and no lead lady in talks yet, in kdramaland especially big production its always the lead will be mention either in talks, or someone they want to cast, the article of kes new drama came out just in time when lmh is out of the army,it means she was already in contact with him, the confirmation of his casting came out quickly, no in talks but confirm already.
He was the first lead in the heirs, why would he step down to the 2nd lead with a great history in rating. His last projects got high ratings. While lee dong wook got poor ratings before goblin. Even after goblin, sigh.
Lee minho is A list actor. And his co star probably someone from chungmuro… I dont think she will cast any idol actor except names like DO or Eunji probably… Ah, i really wish, she cast kim soo hyun. But two suns wont shine together, right?
Kes always cast idolactor but not as 2nd
Le Min Ho has never headlined on his own. So it’s possible that he maybe a second lead in this drama. Good for him if he is going to be the lead in this drama but what I was saying is only the possibility of him being second lead like LDW to GY.
He was very popular in some part of South East Asia but the region was a smaller portion of Hallyu. Japan may have set some restrictions to give way to their local dramas but it’s still it’s the largest market for Hallyu and even during his heydays he was not the post popular there. Forget China due to the ban. But you can count on HongKong & Taiwan.
You mean Kim SO Hyun the actress because Kim SOO Hyun is the actor. Come on people we gotta get the names right cos it’s throwing us off when reading your posts.
I think OP is wishing for both LMH and actor KSH to get cast in this drama but its not going to happen because thats not how Kdrama works unfortunately. 🙁
Kim Soo Hyun, the actor. Cuz this drama probably has two actors as lead, the king and the modern man. But probably actor KSH prefer a drama with him as the only lead.
City hunter and boys over flower put his name as the lead and he headlined those dramas. It’s bcuz most of his other dramas had popular noona co star.
I cant wait for this drama.
In recent hallyu polls he still ranks #1 despite having no dramas for 3 years. He’s for sure the most popular Korea overseas. If they are going for hallyu popularity here, then he is no doubt the best choice.
*Korean actor
LMH and second lead what a joke )))Articles in Naver clear said male lead. He is not going to play in Kdrama second lead, he is A-list actor, global popular hallyu star. And if you following KES, she always always cast and announcing male lead first (she cast first and announced LBH, GY, SJK, LMH, JDG, HB and only after female lead and others…)
From 2013 to 2020 in the 7 years since he worked with KES he has done only 1 other drama. I can’t believe he only has 3 dramas in 7 years despite the huge success that Heirs was. I need him to do dramas more regularly why this extremely long gap? Military service was only 2 years that still leaves 5 years with only 3 dramas. Not again LMH give us more dramas now that you are back permanently.
Didn’t he have two movies in between (2015 & 2016)? Easy Google will tell you what he has done and when. However, despite all of his works, his acting has not improved any bit.
Well it’s hard to improve if you only want to stick to hallyu and the same type of roles.
this shows what kind of a so-called “actor” he is.
@candycane – I don’t think that the people who glorify LMH’s acting care at all that he’s stagnant or regressing in his acting. They’re more interested in him being a glorified “A” list Hallyu star than him showing progressive talent by picking up a diversity of roles. lol. If he’s going to continue his career by picking similar leading man roles in huge budget romcom roles, more power to him; there are plenty of other male actors who care to challenge themselves and who are much more of a joy to watch onscreen. To each his own, smh.
I don’t know what you are talking about. I think you are replying to the wrong person! BTW – what do you mean by a glorified “A” list Hallyu star? There is no more Hallyu. LOL. SMH.
Hallyu is far form dead but it just doesn’t resonate from kdrama anymore. Kpop is making major inroads in foreign markets so this is just a phase when kdrama isn’t doing as well as it used to. Eventually the circle will go around again and kpop will slow down and kdrama will rev back up.
Kpop is being called Kpop in the Western and European countries. Hallyu is an Asian/Chinese outdated term referring to Kdramas only. Kdramas are not getting high ratings in SK now, so don’t expect this to happen in other countries… People are now watching Cdramas instead. The “circle” may go around in another 10 years, but for now, no Hallyu. It shows your age if you mention this term ?
@Adal agree with you, but we are called losers because “our favs???” didn’t get the role. Perso i’m fond of Lee Min Ho but not because of his acting skills…he may be a A+ list actor but a lot of less known actors are better perhaps because they choose different roles. The problem with some big names it’s that they tend to do what people want to mantain their status and forget that acting is a permanent challenge. With that said ,a lot of famous directors choose always the same actors A Hitchcock, Martin Scorcèse,…
I just want him with Unni Song Hye Kyo .
Song Hye Kyo always makes hits and Lee min Ho has expressed his admiration for her multiple times.
Song Hye Kyo needs one last very big drama before she hits 40 .
actually I want to see Lee Min Ho become a villain and play a cruel and cunning character, but yeah good luck For this drama
Song tax evasion have huge flop drama like encounter and world within lol. Even her film list all was flop hard????.