K-pop idol Daniel Kang offered lead role in K-drama Our Police Class, first Disney+ original series in Korea
- Kang is reported to positively considering the role in Our Police Class, which would mark his debut as a screen actor
- The drama will focus on the lives and dreams of the young people who make up the 2,000-strong student body at a police academy
K-pop idol Daniel Kang has been offered a lead role in Our Police Class (translated title), a Korean original series from Disney+. The show would mark Kang’s debut as a screen actor, as well as the streaming giant’s production debut in South Korea, currently one of the hottest content markets in the world.
On Monday morning, news initially surfaced that Kang’s casting was fixed, but a representative from his agency Konnect Entertainment later revealed that the singer had been offered the part and was positively considering it.
The Disney+ drama will focus on the lives and dreams of the young people who make up the 2,000-strong student body at a police academy, said to be the most conservative and exclusive campus in Korea.
If the offer is accepted, the singer will play Wi Seung-hyun, son to the chief of the Dongbu (Eastern Area) Police Agency of Gyeonggi province. Handsome and clever, as well as tough and loyal, Seung-hyun aims to follow in his father’s footsteps and places first on the college entrance exam on his second attempt. Everything is going according to plan, until he meets a woman named Kang Go-eun and his life takes an unexpected turn.
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Following his rise to fame through the reality singing contest show Produce 101, Kang joined the boy band Wanna One. After the outfit disbanded, Kang pursued a successful solo singing career. He has been approached to appear in several dramas, but has turned them all down to focus on his singing career so far.
The series is being produced by Studio&NEW, which is known for the shows Descendants of the Sun and Delayed Justice, and the film The Great Battle. The company is a subsidiary of NEW (Next Entertainment World), the studio behind Train to Busan . Penning the series will be writer Lee Ha-na.
While Disney+ has yet to launch in Korea, Disney has confirmed that it will begin operations in the country at some point in 2021. During its recent Investor Day presentation, Disney also announced that Korea would be one of the countries getting Star+, a parallel streaming platform that will host more varied content and, in some markets, additional localised content.
Disney+ will enter a busy streaming marketplace that is currently led by Netflix, while local services such as Watcha, Wavve, Tving and Coupang Play have steadily been gaining traction, with many of them jumping into original content.
Apple TV+ is also working on original Korean series ahead of an anticipated launch, while many believe that HBO Max is also destined for the market. Amazon’s Prime Video is also nominally available in Korea as a streaming service option, but without a team on the ground or local content for the time being.
