Marvel shout outs and Lisa from Blackpink’s cameo boost K-pop boy band reality TV show ‘Kingdom: Legendary War’

Deadpool star Ryan Reynolds and Lisa from Blackpink added some extra star factor to ‘Kingdom: Legendary War’

K-pop bands Stray Kids, Ateez, The Boyz, BtoB, iKon and SF9 are all taking part in the competition show

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Stray Kids perform on South Korean reality TV competition ‘Kingdom: Legendary War’. Photo: Kingdom

Published: 10:15pm, 26 May 2021Updated: 11:47pm, 26 May 2021

The South Korean TV competition show Kingdom is having a legendary impact on the K-pop scene.

The show, which is formally titled Kingdom: Legendary War, began airing last month on South Korean cable broadcaster Mnet and features popular K-pop boy bands Ateez, The Boyz, BtoB, iKon, SF9 and Stray Kids facing off each week in a variety of performance competitions. Recent episodes and performances have gained a lot of attention from fans and celebrity audiences, and shown new sides to each band.

Last week’s episode on May 20 saw the biggest surge of interest in the show, thanks to two specific performances that by chance channelled the same popular girl group: Stray Kids’ mash-up of their song God’s Menu and Blackpink’s 2018 hit Du-Ddu Du-Ddu in which they channelled Marvel’s Deadpool character, and iKon’s recreation of Blackpink’s 2020 song Pretty Savage as Classy Savage – which featured a cameo from none other than the superstar quartet’s Lisa.

The performances are currently the most-viewed on YouTube from Kingdom: Legendary War, which is no surprise considering the star support of Ryan Reynolds, and Lisa, who is the K-pop star with the biggest Instagram audience, with currently 53 million followers.

Following the performances, they both trended globally on social media and Stray Kids’ ended up getting a celebrity shout-out from none other than Reynolds himself.

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