5 key takeaways from ‘The Remarried Empress’ press conference

From the moment a live-action series adaptation of “The Remarried Empress” was announced, excitement was already running high. After all, the series is based on the hit Naver webtoon and web novel of the same name, which have amassed nearly three billion views to date.

“The Remarried Empress” follows the story of Empress Navier and Emperor Sovieshu of the Eastern Empire, whose marriage begins to unravel when Sovieshu falls in love with Rashta, a runaway slave. Navier agrees to the emperor’s request for a divorce, but on one condition: that she be allowed to remarry the dashing Prince Heinrey of the rival Western Kingdom, setting the stage for a tale of love, lust and regret.

Beyond the popularity of its source material, the live-action adaptation has generated even more buzz with its star-studded cast, bringing together K-drama A-listers Shin Min-a, Ju Ji-hoon, Lee Jong-suk and Lee Se-young in the lead roles.

On Tuesday, the four stars joined director Cho Su-won at a press conference in Seoul to discuss the highly anticipated 10-part series. Here are five key takeaways from the event.

Early in the press conference, a video announcement revealed that “The Remarried Empress” would premiere a day earlier than originally scheduled. Instead of its November 4 debut, the series would begin streaming on Disney+ on November 3, with the first four episodes dropping on Disney+ Philippines at 7 p.m. local time.

In a press release, Disney+ explained that the earlier premiere was “a special thank you to fans for their overwhelming support.”

“The surprise announcement follows months of growing excitement for the series, including sold-out preview screenings at the Busan International Film Festival, and the release of the show’s payoff trailer surpassing 13 million views in the first 48 hours on YouTube and social media platforms,” the streamer said.

Following the four-episode premiere, two new episodes will be released every Wednesday, starting November 11, until the series finale on November 25.

With only 10 episodes, audiences should most likely not expect to see everything from the source material. Min-a said the live-action adaptation focuses more on the four main characters.

“As far as I understand, the original material has many, many episodes and there are a lot more characters than what we created in the 10-episode series. For us the overall narrative focuses really on these four characters. It’s almost a simplified and condensed version of the original series,” she said through an interpreter.

For director Cho, the series’ tone was an important point of his focus. “In the web novel, there’s a lot of seriousness but a lot of entertainment as well. The web novel is a little bit different from the webtoon because the webtoon is more comedic and fun,” he explained.

“I wanted to strike a balance, to go in the middle, between the seriousness and entertainment factors. So I didn’t want to take out anything, I just wanted to stay true to the original webtoon and web novel,” he said, adding that he hoped the source material’s fandom would enjoy the show.

Both Min-a and Ji-hoon agreed that while the series offered something “new” — particularly its world inspired by Western royalty — its narrative would also feel “familiar” to audiences.

At the press conference, the main cast also shared more about their characters and how they approached portraying them. Min-a, for instance, described Navier as an “intelligent, perfect [and] naturally regal empress,” who rises above her husband’s betrayal to forge her own destiny — an “independent” quality that the actress particularly admired.

Min-a focused on portraying two sides of Navier: her more elegant facade as an empress and her more vulnerable, human side as a woman who falls in love and experiences heartbreak. 

“Compared to my previous characters in other projects, she is someone who is not so expressive in terms of her emotions inside but she is also a woman who falls in love and is human,” she said.

Meanwhile, Ji-hoon, who returns to playing royalty after his earlier roles in the hit series “Princess Hours” and “Kingdom,” described Sovieshu as “quite foolish” for pursuing a romance with Rashta.

“He is almost childlike, he has his innocence where he follows his heart and he is unable to see how it affects other,” he said.

The actor said he immersed himself in the story’s universe to better understand his character’s motivations and perspective. “I was just naturally immersed in the world — my character wanting to give birth to an heir [and] trying to find a concubine in order to do that, you kind of are convinced of the story when you think of the setting. Because when you are an emperor, having an heir is important,” he said.

Addressing the strong negative reactions to his character during the series’ screening at the Busan International Film Festival, Ji-hoon said, “As long as you are entertained, no matter how much you hate me, I am fine with that.”

Se-young also sought to understand the beautiful Rashta’s motivations, which stem from her background as a slave and her determination to survive. “She wants to survive, she wants to live and so that leads her to naturally want and desire for more,” she said, adding that she wanted to portray the character as “feisty and bold.”

“I really hate her but I do feel a little bit sorry for her… I want people to resonate with my character to some extent,” the actress said.

Perhaps the most intriguing of the lead characters is Jong-suk’s Prince Heinrey, whom the actor described as laid-back and sweet. But the prince also harbors a “mysterious secret”: his ability to transform into a bird named Queen. To bring this transformation to life, the computer graphics (CG) team even incorporated some of Jong-suk’s facial features into the bird’s design.

“Queen and Heinrey have to be the same person. So, if you look at the hair on the bird, it’s sort of brown like my own. The way he looks, the way he moves, it’s something that they [the CG team] used my features to blend into the bird character,” said the actor, who also confessed to being a fan of the original material.

Jong-suk also also admitted to feeling pressure over scenes that required Heinrey to appear naked after transforming back into a human from a bird. “I asked director Cho [for] one more month because I needed to build my body to make sure that I looked compelling,” he said.

“The Remarried Empress” unfolds in a fantasy world inspired by Western royalty, a departure from the settings typically seen in traditional Korean historical dramas. To bring this world to life, filming took place in the Czech Republic and Germany.

“The physical space had to be convincing and very real, and so the production company also felt the same way and so I think we had an intensive pre-production,” said director Cho.

“We did a lot of research and location hunting. That’s when we came to set on the Schleissheim Palace in Germany. And when we finally set on that place, I thought, ‘This would be a wonderful and perfect playground for all of our characters,” he added.