The Remarried Empress Release Date, Cast, Episode Schedule
Four episodes on Nov. 4, then two every Wednesday until Nov. 25. That is the release plan Disney+ has set for The Remarried Empress, a 10-episode Korean fantasy romance starring Shin Min-a, Ju Ji-hoon, Lee Jong-suk and Lee Se-young. In the United States it streams on Hulu as well as Disney+.
New stills released Oct. 19 put the four leads in costume. Shin's Navier, the empress of the Eastern Empire, appears in an ornate gown with a composed smile in one image and visibly unsettled in another, facing Rashta. Ju's Emperor Sovieshu stands icy beside her, rides out on a hunt and sits alone in thought. Lee Jong-suk's Heinrey, the prince of the Western Kingdom, wears a relaxed expression and an unreadable smile. Lee Se-young's Rashta looks up at the emperor with a gaze that reads innocent and ambitious at once.
The story turns on a divorce. Sovieshu falls for Rashta, a runaway slave, and asks Navier to end the marriage. She agrees on one condition: permission to remarry Heinrey.
The source material is large. The series adapts a webtoon that had passed 2.97 billion global views as of July, itself drawn from a web novel. Cho Su-won, whose credits include Still 17 and Pinocchio, directs. According to Disney+'s behind-the-scenes video, the crew toured castles in France, Germany and the Czech Republic before choosing Germany's Schleissheim Palace as the main location.
Early numbers are strong, and the early opinion is divided. Disney+ said the teaser drew 11.7 million views in its first 24 hours, the most for any Disney+ Korean original trailer in that window, and the main trailer passed 13 million in 48 hours. TV Report noted that reactions to the first trailer split sharply over the live-action casting and look. The first three episodes screened at the Busan International Film Festival on Oct. 7.
After the four-episode opener, the schedule is two episodes each Wednesday: Nov. 11, Nov. 18 and the Nov. 25 finale. That adds up to 10 episodes in 22 days, a faster pace than a one-a-week rollout.
The front-loaded opener matters for this story. Four episodes on the first night give viewers the divorce, Navier's condition and the arrival of Heinrey in one sitting, before the weekly pairs begin. Because the festival screening covered the first three episodes, the Busan audience has already seen most of that setup. US viewers can watch on either Disney+ or Hulu, with the same release dates on both.
