K-drama Adaptation of Whale Star: The Gyeongseong Mermaid Confirms Full Cast of Stacked Stars Including Choi Woo Shik, Moon Ga Young, Heo Nam Joon and More
Holy prestige drama casting! The highly anticipated K-drama adaptation of webtoon Whale Star: The Gyeongseong Mermaid today announced the full confirmed main cast and it’s a doozy. In addition to early announced leads Choi Woo Shik and Moon Ga Young, with second leads Heo Nam Joon and Kang Han Na, we have Vincenzo nice daddy Yoo Jae Myung and Vincenzo legal baddie Kim Yeo Jin also in the line up. Throw in another lead actress in Gong Seung Yeon, who is having a guest star appearance, and this is a clown car of talent. The drama is set during the Japanese occupation of Korea and the Korean independence movement and is scheduled to film shortly with a 2027 airing date on tvN.
I honestly don’t get the charm of the two leads. Even though Moon Ga-young was awarded the prestigious Baeksang Best Actress award for her film Once We Were Us, she doesn’t feel on par with her predecessors like Kim Go-eun and Jeon Do-yeon. I watched Once We Were Us and found it boring, and her acting didn’t impress me either. As for Choi Woo-shik, his drama roles have all been completely forgettable to me.
This show must have been cast before Heo Nam-jun’s breakout hit My Royal Nemesis. In my opinion, Heo Nam-jun is a far better actor and is much more attractive than Choi Woo-shik.
The cast are actually perfectly synced with their webtoon character description. Ui Hyeon is a soft, kind, idealistic freedom activist and that’s Choi Woo Sik. He’s actually a very imperfect lead. The main lead Moon Ga Young is a soft maid hopelessly in love with the guy she rescued and a mute and later gets embroiled into fight against colonial Japan. That’s SuA. Hoe Namjoon plays the rugged, rough around the edges, macho guy with complicated history with the female lead and a tortured soul character. You can’t just say Heo Namjoon should be a lead without any idea about what kind of character they’re playing. Btw, the show is much more than a simple romance. Sometimes it’s best to wait to see things unfold. Because Heo Namjoon as Ui Hyeon would be absolutely miscast. Heo Namjoon is absolutely forgettable when he plays soft characters. That’s partially why Cha Segye has become his breakout role. He’s played lead before but it didn’t work for him for a reason. He actually doesn’t shine in every role. Case in point, When the Phone Rings and A Hundred Memories.
When I saw HNJ in My Royal Nemesis, I instantly remembered him as the ML in A Hundred Memories (even though I hated that love triangle plotline) and his minor supporting role in the flop When the Stars Gossip, lol. Those were the only dramas of his I’d watched before MRN, but he’s good enough to stick in your head regardless of screen time. By comparison, I have to google CWS over and over every time he plays a lead role, lmao. He just did not have strong presence in his past dramas, so I completely forget who he is in every new show.
If HNJ is considered a miscast for the ML role in this webtoon adaptation, I highly doubt CWS would be able to deliver either. Perhaps they should cast someone else entirely, lest the 2nd ML acts circles around the ML. lol
The ML is very, very meh to me. Before someone says it’s because I have blindness due to My royal nemesis, I haven’t seen it yet. The ML just never quite works for me.
Honestly, I agree. I have seen HNJ before this, but I’d known CWS way longer. Still, CWS just never seem to make me excited about him as a second lead or as a male lead.
I know everyone loves the second lead actor but he does seem a tad bit older for the main male lead character. The main female character is fairly plain and young so I’m wondering if they will dial down the look for moon ga young because she is always portraying glammed up characters and this role will be different. The main actor chosen is hit and miss for me. I know he can act when needed but so far his lead roles in dramas were just not that great and from what I have seen he seems to do better in supporting roles. I just have a feeling that this drama adaptation will be a tearjerker though so I will wait till this has aired and been reviewed cause I’m a coward to sad stories.
This case is far from stacked. The main leads are already so so meh. CWS is not good looking neither is he that good of an actor. MGY was maybe somewhat promising 10 years ago but has shown in every drama that she has no range and tends to portray all her characters the same way.
Very weird that people are rooting for HNJ to be the lead when he would fit the ML of this webtoon even less. I think the main cast should have gone younger. However, it also seems like an expensive drama to make, so they also need to look at name recognition, marketability and which of them would be available to film and whether some actors would be willing to pass on other projects since this drama needs a lot of prep work.
Anyways, I looked forward to seeing how drama will bring the webtoon to life!
I like moon GA Young, there’s something about her, maybe it’s the fact that she’s so very pretty and comfortable in her skin, so I’m always rooting for her. I think she’s a talented actress and her baeksang was very well deserved. Looking forward to the drama and another baeksang! We can always hope
I feel that the casting director and writer made a huge mistake casting Heo Nam Jun, Kang Hanna & Gong Seung Yeon in 2nd lead and supporting roles in this upcoming k-drama. Like Heo Nam jun should be the main lead from now on, dude’s acting range is insane, have y’all seen My Royal Nemesis ??? Also, Kang Hanna & Gong Seung yeon are experienced incredible actresses and way too underrated to be constantly in 2nd lead and supporting roles.
Kang Han Na rarely being cast in lead roles is one of the biggest mysteries in K-ent to me. To me, she’s prettier and a better actress than many popular leading ladies, but again, that’s just me. She did great in Bloody Heart, hope she gets cast in more leading roles in the future