CJ E&M Presents on Upcoming 2025 Slate and Claims Rising Actor Choo Young Woo’s Next Drama Will Have the next Lovely Runner
Talk about high expectations and the irony of it coming the same week as a smallish scandal involving said high expectations. This week CJ E&M presented to the media on its slate of 2025 K-dramas and one particular call out got a lot of attention. The presenter claimed that rising actor Choo Young Woo and his fantasy romance drama Gyeon Woo and Fairy (Cowherd and Fairy) with Choi Yi Hyun will be the next Lovely Runner. He’s basically saying Choo Young Woo will be the next LR breakout star Byun Woo Seok, who honestly his level of breakout is like once a decade kind of meteoric. Choo Young Woo was doing super well this month since he’s a cast in the Netflix hit Trauma Code: Heroes on Call and is also in well reviewed currently airing sageuk The Tale of Lady Ok in a one-two punch, except he got into a scandal after netizens noticed he followed a popular controversial sexy female VJ who netizens consider a bad influence for how she uses problematic sex thumbnails to attract followers among other things. Then later it came out that he follows lots of other racy VJs in the past already. Choo Young Woo has deleted his account and apologized, for I dunno I guess being a dude with a high libido and liking sexy ladies content online lol. Anyhoo, this is a pretty awkward timing to even associate him with the possibility of being the next Byun Woo Seok.
I just read the synopsis and it sounds very similar to lovely runner but you can’t really say anything until the drama comes out. And this type of statement is going to harm the actor more since now, people are going to compare it to lovely runner from the start. And most of the lovely runner may not like it and starts trolling the drama.
Also, he has been getting criticism for following cam girls on ig so, his image is already tainted in audience eyes.
Comparing him to Byeon woo seok is like calling a banana as dragonfruit or some exotic fruit. Their popularity completely on different level . Byeon woo seok is black diamond which is rare and beautiful
Why is my comment not showing?
Never a good idea to make such hyperbolic statements. You set up people’s expectations too high. Imho, it’s better to have people pleasantly surprised with low/no expectations.
Nah. I’m not doubting Choo Young Woo and his drama will be do well but this kind of comparison is going to hurt more than it’s going to help him. The whole factor that made the success of Lovely Runner, Byun Woo Seok’s huge star breakout and revival of Kim Hye Yoon’s career so phenomenal is that it was completely organic and natural. No one-least of all CJE&M-expected the drama to be a hit or for BWs to break out the way he did. The drama had a small budget and TVN barely promoted it until it started to naturally gain traction with the audience. LR was also popular due to the clever directing, beautiful cinematography, smart script, phenomenal chemistry between the leads and there is no guarantee this Cowherd drama will be able to replicate these factors.
Also their backstories as actors are so different: Byun Woo Seok was an underdog who succeeded despite the odds. He was struggling along in bit parts and supporting roles facing rejection for years and years until he finally hit big so even the rise of his career is inspiring and makes people like and root for him. On the other hand, Choo Woung Woo is a nepo baby (his dad was a top Korean model on the 90s) who has been acting for barely 4 years and landed his first big male lead role the year he debuted and has had multiple lead roles since so his story isn’t nearly as empathetic or inspirational.
Agreed! I hope the CJ&EM presenter gets a talking-to. It almost feel like they’re screwing CYW and the drama over by making this comparison, especially while his *eyeroll* scandal is still fresh. Dude probably wants to lay low and let his work speak for itself.
I really like Choi Yi-hyun so I hope it does well! Her last dram
He’s very very popular right now in Korea despite his controversy and that says it all. Usually if you run into issues like that as soon as you get popular, all the hype dies but not with him. Even so, it’s never a good thing to compare one actor’s popularity to another. BWS’s agency did that quite a bit by comparing him to far more popular, huge and senior actors last year and got lots of deserved backlash for it. Theres no reason to follow that playbook – this time using BWS’s name. The way I see it, CYW has already broken out through his double hit so it doesn’t even make sense to compare it to LR. BWS was a literal unknown before that. CYW isn’t unknown at all by the time his new rom com comes out. Just different trajectories, different ages and different career directions.
Personally, I don’t find him half as charming and likeable as BWS, who has such a natural ability to draw viewers in. I liked LR, but he made the drama as much as it made him. CYW is definitely good however, and better than other new actors his age so I can imagine he will do well. There is just no reason to compare to BWS.
I believe there is more push from the industry/his agency than there is real popularity among the public. In both Lady Ok and Trauma Code he is not the one carrying the drama nor topping the topicality list (he only ranks 8th in this week’s topicality list for that matter). It’s just that Kdrama is pining for a fresh new face and he is a better actor than most other 20-something male actors. I am not sure if he is a nepo baby but his agency, media and industry are certainly throwing resources his way. He is appearing in a Gucci event, lands the cover of Harper Bazaar, and is appearing in so many dramas all at once (though again in supporting roles). If his June rom-drama does well, then we could talk about real popularity. Currently his Bazaar magazine is not selling very well.
@eva – correct, this does appear to be an industry push and the supporting media play to make a new ‘It Boy’ out of a younger actor because k-ent is rather lacking in that age group for big name male actors, and I don’t blame them but also this is rather premature. Lady Ok seems to be more centred on Im Jiyeon and Trauma Code’s first billed name is Joo Jihoon, not him (and Joo Jihoon is carrying that show too).
I think this hype needs to happen after he actually carries a show to hit status as lead, otherwise it’s just gassing him up/setting him up for failure. I mean, at least Byun Wooseok was the lead of his hit show and was buzzed about by the public.
You wish tvn
BWS is popular with a breakout drama last year. That’s a fact I can’t deny. Nonetheless, I personally don’t swoon over his charm that much as many Kdrama fans do. I also think LR is so so. Therefore, the comparison has zero impact on me – it gives me zero idea of what to expect from this new drama and the actor LOL.
Funny… they initially dont like hime being attached to a BL series You Make Me Dance; Then love him in Trauma Code; and now they are dropping him like a hot potato for following a sexy VJ — who some claim to be bad influence? Hello… Judgemental…