Ahn Hyo-seop, Kim Yoo-jung
There’s been a slew of recent casting news for SBS’s upcoming sageuk drama Hong Chun-gi. It’s been announced that Kim Yoo-jung (Backstreet Rookies), Gong Myung (Be Melodramatic), and Kwak Shi-yang (Alice) are all up to play roles in this fantasy historical romance. Additionally, Ahn Hyo-seop (Romantic Teacher Kim 2) has been attached to the project for a long time as a possible lead.
If Kim Yoo-jung confirms, she’ll be in the titular role of the beautiful Hong Chun-gi, who is historically recorded as the only female painter to be admitted entry into Joseon’s Dohwawon, the premier art academy. With her excellent photographic memory, she can draw people soulfully to such a degree of detail through her genius-level artistic skills and sense of time and space. Ahn Hyo-seop’s role is that of an astrologer and face-reader who can read the skies to predict events and destinies, but has lost his skills.
Kwak Shi-yang, Gong Myung
Gong Myung has been offered the role of Lee Yul, a chic, powerful idealistic prince who dreams of establishing Joseon’s legitimacy. He seems like a carefree romanticist who likes to take things with the flow, but beneath it all, his life is in danger at every moment due to Kwak Shi-yang.
Kwak Shi-yang has been courted to play Lee Yoo, also known as Prince Suyang, who has been portrayed in many other historical retellings of this period as a cruel tyrant. In Hong Chun-gi, Lee Yoo is still a prince, but he’s a prince who believes he deserves the throne. With those motives, he approaches Ahn Hyo-seop to engage in palace intrigues so that he can impose his political rule of fear and absolute power upon the nation.
Based on a best-selling novel by Jung Eun-gwol (Sungkyunkwan Scandal, Moon Embracing the Sun), SBS drama Hong Chun-gi, written by Ha Eun (Be Melodramatic) and directed by PD Jang Tae-yoo (You From Another Star), is expected to air next year.