Empress Ki is getting ready for its premiere as it follows another sageuk on MBC Goddess Of Fire Jung Yi. The historical drama comes from the writers of well-praised shows History Of The Salaryman and Giant, while the PDs did May Queen and Dr. Jin. A pretty amazing combination. Ha Ji Won is in the titular role of Empress ki who is born as a Goryeo woman and later becomes Yuan empress. Joo Jin Mo plays the Goryeo king who is determined to free Goryeo from Yuan rule. I hadn’t updated the third angle of the love triangle presented in the show and that will be the character of Yuan Emperor and Ji Chang Wook (Five Fingers) is playing it. He takes our heroine as his royal concubine. I haven’t seen any of his works but he looks cute (that’s the only thing I can say by going through the pictures). Then we have more female cast additions, starting with Baek Jin Hee (I Summon You, Gold) who plays Ji Chang Wook’s wife from arranged marriage and thus a rival for the heroine for his affections. Then, we have Kim Seo Hyung (History of the Salaryman) as Empress Ki’s political competitor and Yoon Ah Jung (Hundred Year Inheritance) as Yuan born princess who becomes Joo Jin Mo’s step mother after marrying a Goryeo king.

MBC has aired back to back sageuks this year in its Monday-Tuesday slot including shows like Horse Doctor, Gu Family Book, Goddess Of Fire Jung Yi and now the 50 episode Empress Ki. I’m not a fan of historical Kdramas and my record of such shows consists of only one show to date (Sungkyunkwan Scandal). I did get my fingers burned by trying another (Gu Family Book) but thankfully I dropped it after 10 episodes. Anyway, stills are out for Empress Ki and everybody is looking great. Action has always been Ha Ji Won’s forte and the stills show her in that same awesome persona again. As much as I like the cast, the jury is still out on watching the drama due to the obvious reasons of length and genre.

Empress Ki begins airing from October 28.