Lee Min-ho bets big on Omniscient Reader—can it redeem his luck after When the Stars Gossip disaster?

Lee Min-ho hasn’t had particularly good luck with big-budget Korean dramas, lately. While The King: Eternal Monarch  at least witnessed some success abroad, his latest When The Stars Gossip was criticised heavily for its far-fetched plot, and finally its ending, too.

Nevertheless, Min-ho might just turn things around with Omniscient Reader, which has a powerful star cast that includes Ahn Hyo-seop, Jisoo and Chae Soo-bin.

Based on the wildly popular web novel, the upcoming adaptation stars Ahn Hyo Seop as Kim Dok Ja, an ordinary office worker who suddenly finds himself living inside the very fantasy novel he was obsessively reading. Armed with insider knowledge of how the story unfolds, Kim Dok Ja becomes humanity’s unlikely hope to stop the end of the world. Meanwhile, Min-ho takes on the role of Yoo Joong Hyuk, the original novel’s battle-hardened protagonist.

The newly dropped teaser and poster promise a scale as massive as its premise. In the poster, Kim Dok Ja and Yoo Joong Hyuk lock eyes with the viewer, surrounded by their soon-to-be allies: Yoo Sang Ah (Chae Soo Bin), Lee Hyun Sung (Shin Seung Ho), Jung Hee Won (Nana), Lee Ji Hye (Jisoo), and Lee Gil Young (Kwon Eun Seong), all gazing up at a foreboding system window hovering above them. The tagline?

“The novel that only I knew has become reality.”

In the haunting teaser, Kim Dok Ja narrates: “The story that I loved—the one that meant everything to me—has become reality.” One minute, he’s riding the subway home. The next, a goblin named Bihyung appears, delivering a chilling command to the passengers: kill at least one living being.

As the line between fiction and reality shatters, chaos ensues, and we get a glimpse of the characters’ iconic weapons in a jaw-dropping fight for survival.

“We just have to clear up to the 99th scenario,” Kim Dok Ja declares, battling through the madness. And with quiet determination, he promises:

“With my companions, I will rewrite the ending of this story.”

So, it remains to be seen, how the audience responds to the teasers. The fan reactions are overwhelming, with many expressing eagerness for the show.