SBS acquires rights to broadcast Lee Min-ho’s new drama ‘The King: The Eternal Monarch’

Aug 12, 2019

SBS has acquired the rights to broadcast Lee Min-ho‘s new drama The King: The Eternal Monarch in 2020, Hwa&Dam Pictures announced on August 12.

Hwa&Dam Pictures—a subsidiary of Studio Dragon, one of the biggest production companies in South Korea—is at the helm of the upcoming drama’s production. It stated on Monday that The King: The Eternal Monarch is set to be broadcast in the first half of 2020 and “we have decided to air the drama on SBS.” The series will be broadcast first on SBS and subsequently distributed across “various platforms” including over the top (OTT) media services.

The King: The Eternal Monarch is a fantasy romance drama about an emperor, played by Lee Min-ho (Legend Of The Blue Sea), who teams up with a modern-day detective in facing the danger brought about by the opening of a portal that connects their two parallel worlds. Kim Go-eun (Goblin) will be playing the detective while Woo Do-hwan (The Great Seducer), Kim Kyung-nam (Special Labor Inspector), and Jung Eun-chae (The Guest) will also be seen playing major supporting roles.

The upcoming broadcast of The King: The Eternal Monarch on SBS will mark the return of a Kim Eun-sook-penned drama to the TV network. Kim Eun-sook wrote three of the most successful and widely popular Korean dramas in the last three years—tvN’s Mr. Sunshine (2018) and Goblin (2016-2017), and KBS2’s Descendants Of The Sun (2016).

Prior to working with KBS2 and tvN, Kim worked exclusively with SBS from 2003 to 2013. During this period, she wrote nine TV series which all achieved above-average viewership ratings, including Lovers In Paris (2004), Secret Garden (2010-2011), and The Heirs (2013).

An official from SBS said on Monday, “Kim Eun-sook has returned to her home in SBS with her new work The King: The Eternal Monarch.”

Meanwhile, The King: The Eternal Monarch is helmed by Baek Sang-hoon, who co-directed Descendants Of The Sun, Moonlight Drawn By Clouds (2016) and Who Are You: School 2015.

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