Joo Ji-hoon, Ryu Seung-ryong, Bae Doo-na
Now this is a lineup some dream casts are made of. There’s some exciting casting news for Kingdom, the newest show from Signal’s writer Kim Eun-hee, to follow the disappointing reports that Song Joong-ki (Descended From the Sun) has ultimately turned down his offer to star in the Netflix fusion sageuk. Joo Ji-hoon (Asura, Mask), Ryu Seung-ryong (Dorihwaga), and Bae Doo-na (Forest of Secrets) are all considering roles in the upcoming 8-episode Joseon action thriller, which is tentatively scheduled to start filming next month.
Kingdom will follow the crown prince of Joseon who starts investigating a mysterious plague that is devastating the populace. This ‘plague’ turns out to be a zombie outbreak, and our hero will fight to reveal what’s happening. If he does accept, Joo Ji-hoon will star as the crown prince of zombie-infested Joseon, and it will be interesting to see whether the political component mentioned in earlier reports will remain in the plot. Because I’ve found that the biggest conflicts in zombie apocalypse stories (aside from the obvious) are derived from how the people in power react to these sorts of catastrophes.
Bae Doo-na and Ryu Seung-ryong’s potential roles remain unspecified but I don’t even care because I know they’ll be brilliantly badass or evil, depending on what their characters are. I really hope things work out so that both actors can sign up, but Bae Doo-na’s participation is up in the air because she’s currently filming Drug King and it’ll be a tight schedule if she agrees to Kingdom, which plans to commence shoots pretty soon. If Ryu Seung-ryong signs on, it’ll be a pretty big coup for the Netflix show, since he hasn’t been in a drama since 2010’s Personal Taste. I can’t believe it’s been 7 years already.
I’m a pretty big fan of zombie stories in general, with some of my favorites including World War Z (the book), the early seasons of Walking Dead, and of course, Train to Busan. So I was ecstatic to hear that dramaland was trying its hand in the genre, and with the writing and directing talent behind the zombie action sageuk, I’m counting down the days ‘til I can binge-watch it on Netflix. Which is still a long ways away, sadly: Kingdom is planning on being released via the online streaming platform in late 2018.