Lee Won-geun, Shin Hyun-bin
There’s been a bit of a cast and crew shakeup over at KBS for the planned sequel to this year’s amateur sleuth series Mystery Queen. Now, before anyone panics, Choi Kang-hee and Kwon Sang-woo will be returning to reprise their roles as the ajumma detective and her gruff partner, which I was relieved to hear, since sequels turning into spin-offs isn’t an uncommon occurrence in dramaland. However, we might see a shift in the show’s look and feel with a new director at the helm and several supporting characters being replaced.
The first season’s director, PD Kim Jin-woo, has signed on to direct the upcoming Suits adaptation starring Jang Dong-gun and Park Hyung-shik, so he will be unavailable to work on the second season of Mystery Queen. Fortunately, PD Choi Yoon-seok, who has a joint director credit on Chief Kim, has come onboard to replace PD Kim. I really enjoyed the tone of Mystery Queen’s first season, which had a bit of a quirky, light noir feel, so I’m sad to see PD Kim go, but I also really enjoyed the wacky, full of ad-libbing Chief Kim. It’ll be interesting to see how much of the tone will change with PD Choi.
I’m a bit more disappointed to hear of the casting changes for the upcoming season: Lee Won-geun and Shin Hyun-bin are reported to have dropped out of the show. Shin Hyun-bin played the shady lawyer with shifting loyalties who almost succeeded in forcing Kwon Sang-woo to get engaged to her last season. And of course, Lee Won-geun played the adorable puppy officer-turned-detective who very nearly hero-worshipped Choi Kang-hee’s ajumma sleuth.
It’s unclear whether their characters will not return for the second season, or whether the actors will simply be replaced, but either way, I’m pretty sad to hear that Lee Won-geun won’t be coming back. He had a really cute rapport with both Choi Kang-hee and Kwon Sang-woo, and I’ll miss him trailing after the ajumma detective like a duckling and pettily arguing with the veteran violent crimes detective over couple pajamas.
Mystery Queen 2 is tentatively scheduled to premiere in mid-February, which means there’s still some time before production really gets underway. In the meantime, I’m going to be over here re-watching clips of Lee Won-geun and Kwon Sang-woo as bickering roomies. *tear*
