Media Claims Lee Min Ho’s Drama “The King” Is Lying About The Actor That Was Unfairly Kicked Out

The drama staff was called out for their actions.

A media outlet has claimed that the production team of upcoming drama The King: Eternal Monarch is lying about their explanation of the actor that was unfairly kicked off the drama.

Yesterday, it was revealed by Market News that The King: Eternal Monarch unfairly removed an actor from the casting of the drama because the script changed. In response, The King: Eternal Monarch responded that the removal of the actor was not unfair.

The reports about “The King: Eternal Monarch” abusing power regarding the casting is not true.

After checking with the casting director, we learned that the actor in question was cast back in October 2019 as a detective. After the script changed, the character’s age became older, and he ultimately he did not make the final cast.

However, there was a delay in the process of communicating the news between the casting director and the agency, causing the misunderstanding. The casting director later apologized and personally called to explain the situation. The actor and his agency understood the situation and the situation was peacefully resolved.

We regret the reports that “The King: Eternal Monarch” have been involved in ahead of the premiere episode. We will continue to try our best to create a good project.

— The King: Eternal Monarch

In response, Market News has released a new exclusive article detailing how The King: Eternal Monarch production team’s explanation is not true, and full of lies starting from their very first sentence.

According to Market News, the actor even completed filming for parts of the drama, and after being notified of his removal, was waiting for a call from someone on the drama’s team, but that call never arrived at the actor’s agency. The drama cited revision of the script as the reason for removal, but the drama ended up replacing the actor without any notice, meaning the situation is more a unilateral breach of contract, not a casting issue.

Also, as the casting director called the actor’s agency late, causing the misunderstanding, the fault is actually placed on the casting director, not the writer Kim Eun Sook or the production team Hwa&Dam Pictures. The issue stems from the actor’s dedication to the role. He had been waiting and preparing for the role for months, and during that time, wasn’t allowed to appear in other works, affecting his income. This makes it a situation that is difficult to understand how they peacefully came to a resolution.

Even when his role disappeared without him knowing, the filming continued on. Should it be expected that the explanation of “Well the writer changed the script, so that’s what happened,” be accepted? The situation has not been resolved yet. The actor and the casting director are belatedly in discussions now. An apology should have come first. If they admitted their mistakes and promised to make efforts to prevent things like this from happening in the future, this situation would not have blown up.

Market News stated that the reason they are bringing this issue up is not only to target The King: Eternal Monarch, but also to raise awareness and support the hard working artists and actors who are trying to work their way up the ladder and realize their dreams. Market News stated that their initial report was bare-bones in the facts, as they feared the name of the actor in question would be released, however The King: Eternal Monarch released more specific information about the actor and did not apologize to the actor.

Source: Market News