Disney+ Announcement Confirms K-drama Knock Off with Kim Soo Hyun will Air in 2025 and that Female Lead is Jo Boa
I don’t think any of this is a surprise but it’s certainly a welcomed confirmation. The K-drama Knock Off set in the late 90’s onward as a period story of the Korean fashion industry and the counterfeit goods world got mega attention due to the casting of Kim Soo Hyun as the male lead. It was never expected to air this year but could conceivably squeeze in a very late 2024 year end airing date if the production was ambition. But streaming platform Disney+ is saving a sure fire thing for next year as it confirmed this weekend with the release of its schedule that Knock Off will air sometime in 2025. The confirmation also put to rest the female lead question and its for sure Jo Boa, and Kwon Nara will be a supporting female lead with rising young actress Kim Shi Eun as her younger sister role. Now that doesn’t mean any of the actresses is the romantic interest for the male lead, just that Jo Boa is likely getting the most substantive role and screentime is all. For once K-netizens aren’t fighting or focusing on billing and just excited about such a star-studded cast and so am I!
It’s a very male centric drama with a writer team who has historically not written romances so there’s really no reason to fight regarding the billing of the ladies. They all accepted the role likely because the roles they were offered were interesting and that wanted to be a part of such a sprawling star studded cast. Im so seated for this and it’s one of my most awaited alongside North Star!!
North Star, Melo Movie, Nine Puzzle and Knock Off are next year’s marquee dramas acc to knetz. All post on TQ/Insti/Pann asking “what drama are you looking forward to” floods with these 4 responses. When life gives you tangerines and Made in Korea are also mentioned often. Personally I am also excited about Everything Will Come True! Next year has so many good dramas.
Aside from Knock Off, Melo Movie and North Star are my cannot-wait dramas. 2025 cannot come faster!
2025 has the most impressive Kdrama lineup I’ve seen in a while. Tempest, Knock-Off, Ask The Stars, Melo Movie, When Life Gives You Tangerines, Our Movie, My Youth, Art of Negotiation, Gods Beads, Everything Will Come True, Treasure Island, Nine Puzzle, Squid Game 3, Karma, Good Man, Hyper Knife. The list is truly extensive. The buzz and ratings from 2025 will make for a very competitive Baeksang Awards for the next 2 years.
I agree about the sure-fire comment. No drama is ever a guaranteed hit no matter how many big stars it casts, but something about this one feels very Reborn Rich esque. The gut feeling of a mega drama.
Personally I don’t love the genre or subject matter but the time period keeps is interesting. I’ll probably board the hype train when it picks steam and go from there.
The only bad thing about this drama is the long wait, both pre release and potentially between seasons (ugh).
Knock off’s cast feels like a casting PD’s fever dream. So much talent in one project but so much pressure too. Hope they are up for it.
How much $$$$$ does this production team have because what a cast. Seriously.
Other than Kim Soohyun I don’t see anyone else in the cast who is paid close to his astronomical level of salary per episode. Much of the cast are popular character actors but not exactly superstars that command high salaries. The bulk of the budget will still go into production with 18 episodes split into two seasons.
I was hoping kwon nara was the lead or even kse because i have never gotten into a jba drama. Maybe i am watching the wrong ones but she is soooo bland. At least the drama revolves around ksh’s character which is a relief.
I hope i warm up jba and if anyone has recs, i’d love to change my mind on her. So far i watched her in the drama with ysh and nine tailed fox.
Jo bo ah only bland in romance,she’s never had any chemistry with her costars.don’t worry this drama has zero romance.
Yay for zero romance! I am perfectly happy with the men leading the show.
Same thoughts on Jo Bo Ah. She just does plunky bubbly female leads so poorly and literally cannot generate any believable romantic chemistry with her costars. But in a more badass role or even as a villain, she’s a very strong actress. As others have said, its not a romance drama (thank heavens for us all lol) and the blandness comes from the lack of chemistry instead of the lack of acting talent imo.
I’m hoping there’s romance I don’t want their visuals wasted come on they look hot together. The last ksh drama, that I enjoyed and had romance was mlfas, I love me some Jo boah and disagree with the others on her lack of chemistry, she had it in spades with yoo seungho especially and most recently with ahn bo hyun.
She was good in military prosecutor doberman, but I guess people only watch her romcom dramas
it’s clearly male centric drama and all the stories will be focus on soohyun’s character and it’s not even a romance drama but crime action drama (just got new update about the genre) so who cares about the billing. I’m just excited to see soohyun will act with so many veterans tbh
A bit disappointing. I preferred the description of Nara’s character and prefer Nara as an actress. JBA is always very bland in dramas but maybe she will be better here.
But, regardless, the romance doesn’t seem to be a central theme and the plot and rest of the cast sounds awesome.
I dont care about the female lead but super disappointed that it’s a D+ exclusive. I was hoping it airs on tv so at least the networks can promote it. D+ is incapable of doing that lol. I dont get how from a business decision it makes sense to snag all these high profile S tier actors, pay them the big bucks, but absolutely refuse to promote any of the completed dramas. It’s baffling lol. They somehow convinced SKH to do a drama, then released it without any bells or whistles. Now they got KDW JJH KSH JWS HB and so so so many more top actors for their dramas. Surely they are not expecting all these dramas to pull off a Moving and become huge hits without any effort on their part lol
Agree with you. I’m amazed how D+ not only got S tier actors but they’re also veterans who rarely do a drama. D+ def spend a lot of money for the casts.
I have been very taken aback and confused at how Disney+ managed to nab so many huge kdrama projects (e.g. Polaris / North Star), especially given their restructuring turmoil, but based on interviews, it looks like its new Korea strategy is to go after and win the biggest actors, writers, and productions, no matter the cost. They can’t compete against Netflix on volume, so they’re going for “quality”.
Correction – Disney+ is going for “star power” and “scale of projects”.
I hope things will change next year. It’s not for the lack of money like you mentioned they can afford S grade stars for all their dramas. They have the most anticipated kdramas for 2025 as their exclusive and not via streaming rights. They just expect dramas to do well on names alone. Big Bet was proof that cannot happen. Maybe they will pour more money next year. It’s a waste to not capitalize with KDW’s return or KSH’s follow up after qot, or Moving’s production team doing a new drama Light house. So many opportunities!
Another Disney+ drama that they splurge on but will be forgotten after a few months because almost no one would have seen it as Disney+ keeps its Korean originals geolocked in Asian territories and dumped into Hulu and not advertised everywhere else. Such a waste of talents to not be seen by a wider audience but they got paid tons in Disney money anyway and will have a shot at awards glory in the exclusively for streaming (and partially paid for by Disney, Netflix and TVING/COUPANG) Blue Dragon & Grand Bell.
You had me at Kim Soo Hyun.
Kim Soo hyun definitely have a busy year…likely more to come.
The cast in this drama is solid..strong experience artistes involved. Looking forward to this..
I did not finish Queen of Tears.. just not for me. But I am glad the drama is popular.
I am interested in this new drama story..
disney is terrible at promotions, but this cast might not need it. looking forward to it.
Yea, I think that’s probably what Disney+ is aiming for. Huge names being enough to drive all the hype.
Even variety tweeted about it,it’s getting loads of coverage already.
@Nicklous Yea it’s on the power of KSH’s name. Disney+ really is putting all their proverbial eggs on the star power basket.
The story has interesting setup. The cast is well rounded and strong. I just really don’t want a Disney+ subscription because its useless for most part. But they have been steadily adding good original kdramas to their growing archive.
I like Jo Boa, her romance was pretty great in Destined with You. I’m curious about her next drama with Lee Jae-Wook.
For this drama, the cast is really great. Kim Soo-Hyun of course, but I really like Yoo Jae-Myung too.
@sayaris
Yes I like both Jo Boa and Kwon Nara. Glad to see them getting into a KSH led show.
People here mostly just don’t keep up with the showbiz financial news, nor has Koala updated any information about Disney+’s current financial status since her report of losses in 2023. Therefore, Kdrama fans visiting this site appear to have wrong idea of how Disney+ is doing. Disney+ has plenty of money, not to mention its mother company Disney!!!!!
Disney gross profit for the twelve months ending June 30, 2024 was reportedly $31.832B, a 10.62% increase year-over-year. 11% increase isn’t impressive. Nonetheless, it’s better compared with mere 5% increase last year.
The streaming business alone had revenue of $6.4 billion, and income of $47 million in Q3 2024, compared to a year ago when it had losses of over half a billion.
So, Disney+ (plus Hulu) are recouping losses from the prior year and gaining profits. No wonder they are producing big budget projects. Thanks to Moving, I’m looking forward to Disney+ productions.
If Knock Off is rom com again, I may have to pass cos not a big fan of that genre and I don’t think KSH’s good at that.
I too noticed Disney+ have up their production budget… They are focusing on more serious storyline..
I doubt Knock Off is romcom..I am not into romcoms..or romance centred dramas. I hope Knock Off will be good.
If Knock Off has thriller content and a lot of suspension, I’ll definitely watch it. I always think KSH is better at serious roles, not comedic ones. He’s done so well in Dream High (although I’m not the one for that school drama either) and particularly METS. He’s ok but not impressive in other dramas. I’d like to see him in other genres to challenge himself, thrillers and action for example.
Echoing the disney -ve sentiments lol. Disney Korea’s marketing head needs a demotion. Shop for Killers could have been huge & moving could have been known worldwide if they just tried. They decided to specialize in genre series after failing w/ romances initially like call it love, soundtrack, etc. but non romance needs more marketing because the clout of shippers and swooners don’t show up for it. Every series they have lined up are genre series so we can only hope they included a promotions line on their P&L for ny LOL
Disney is doing really well after switching to more serious fares but they do need to spend money on actual promotions. Another issue is not allowing worldwide release for their K content and using Hulu as a partner platform instead. It’s too bad because Netflix kdramas have been on a decline and Disney ones are really picking up steam. They can cash in on that momentum. They got many big dramas and huge names on the pipe line whereas I can only think of a few big kdramas as Netflix exclusives.
Anyway I’m super pumped for Knock Off. The cast is kickass and KSH never disappoints. I hope we get to see some realism on how the counterfeit industry works. That’s also one of the big reasons I am interested. I don’t expect a documentary obviously but I hope there are so fun eye opening situations.
More excited for the men in the drama tbh. KSH, KMY and YJM together will be EPIC. KSH always picks such diverse characters so let’s see what he has in store this time. Not worried about the quality necessarily as his acting and eye for scripts both is unmatched. But I am interested in how the seasons format will be implemented. I hope it is out early next year and I’ll have my hands full for 24’ with GY’s new drama, Genie, Jeong Nyeon.
Jo Boa is getting married to her non celebrity boyfriend in October, congrats!
😂😂😂, came back to say the same thing. You beat me to it😂. I am so happy for her💗💗
Congratulations to Jo Bo Ah on her upcoming marriage. Very unusual in K-Entertainment for an actor or actress to announce marriage at short notice right after they were cast in drama. Good for her too as she will now be saved from the obsessed shippers from her previous drama and the crazy shippers that would probably have resulted from this drama too.