Popular screenwriter Kim Eun-sook and Hwa&Dam Pictures, the production company of her newest and upcoming drama The King: The Eternal Monarch, held a meeting on May 14 to discuss the casting for the series. Needless to say, the competition among the candidates for the lead female role is hard to overcome, with several big names already on the short list. Among them, award-winning and promising actress Kim Go-eun is the top contender who is “very likely” to get the role.

The King: The Eternal Monarch is probably the biggest drama yet of Kim Eun-sook as far as the story is concerned. It is set in two parallel worlds occupied by a Korean empire and its modern-day counterpart, mixing sci-fi elements with fantasy, history, and romance. The story unfolds when a deity unleashes a demon into the human world which then opens a portal to the parallel universe. It is unclear yet as to which of the two worlds is the “parallel” one relative to the other; what is sure is that a Korean emperor and a detective will try to shut the portal and protect their loved ones from the demon and the danger it brings about. The emperor will be played by Lee Min-ho (Legend Of The Blue Sea).

Meanwhile, the detective is the principal female character to be played by Kim Go-eun if she ends up getting the project. The lead actress will actually play two roles in the drama—the detective in the modern world and her doppelganger in another, who is the youngest prime minister in the Korean empire.

Kim Go-eun in a poster for Goblin with Gong Yoo.

Kim Go-eun was most recently seen in Kim Eun-sook’s hit fantasy romance series Goblin (2016). If she gets the lead role, she—along with Lee Min-ho who starred in The Heirs (2013), another drama from the same writer—will break the existing stereotype that Kim Eun-sook does not re-cast lead actors from her previous works.

Kim Go-eun made her TV acting debut in 2016 through the romantic drama Cheese In The Trap, which was followed by Goblin in the same year. She has been focusing on films since then, with her latest one (Yoo Yeol’s Music Album, also starring Jung Hae-in) up for release this year.

The King: The Eternal Monarch is the 13th drama of Kim Eun-sook which will be broadcast in the first half of 2020. With PD Baek Sang-hoon (Descendants of the Sun) as the director, it is expected to become a commercial success just like its predecessors including Lovers In Paris, Secret Garden, The Heirs, Descendants of the Sun, Goblin, and most recently, Mr. Sunshine. The lead actresses of these dramas are Kim Jung-eun, Ha Ji-won, Park Shin-hye, Song Hye-kyo, Kim Go-eun, and Kim Tae-ri, respectively.

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