A month after news of her possible casting was announced, actress Bae Doo-na is now confirmed to play the heroine in Netflix’s original Korean drama Kingdom. SBD Entertainment, the actress’ agency, made the announcement on October 12 saying that the Netflix series will become her next project after the movie Drug King and she will start filming for the drama very soon.

Written by Signal writer Kim Eun-hee, Kingdom is a thriller involving a zombie apocalypse that threatens the crown prince who investigates it and the entire Joseon dynasty. Joo Ji-hoon (Mask) has been courted to play the crown prince after Song Joong-ki declined to take the same role due to his upcoming wedding this month. Veteran actor Ryu Seung-ryong (Personal Taste) also received an offer to play a major character but details about his role remain under wraps just like Bae Doo-na’s which marks her very first major character in a fusion saeguk.

Bae Doo-na’s most recent television series is tvN’s critically acclaimed Secret Forest wherein she played a bold, righteous detective who teams up with a prosecutor in an effort to uncover the truth behind a serial murder case and corruption in the prosecution office. The drama was purchased by Netflix for $200,000 per episode, a move by the streaming giant that was mainly dependent on the appearance of the actress who is widely recognized overseas for her role in Netflix’s original series Sense8. This time around, she will play another major role in a drama to be made by Netflix itself and streamed exclusively to its more than 93 million subscribers worldwide in the second half of 2018.

Kingdom will be helmed by award-winning film director and screenwriter Kim Seong-hun best known for his 2014 action thriller film A Hard Day which earned him at least seven accolades from prestigious award-giving bodies in Korea. He will be reuniting with Bae Doo-na in Kingdom as they already worked together in his 2016 survival drama film The Tunnel in which she played the leading female role.

The producers of Kingdom is planning for it to have a three-season format, which delights fans who have been disappointed by a recent report stating that the first season will have six episodes instead of the originally planned eight. The final announcement of the episode and season count has yet to be made but what is certain for now is that all of the episodes to be released next year will be completely pre-produced and the filming will commence this October or November.

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