Intro for October 22, 2026
– 2 min read
Dear Gossips,
Over the last few years, nearly a decade in fact, the popularity of Korean dramas has extended well beyond its home borders, with a growing global reach that followed along the path of its pop music counterpart. Over the last several months, maybe even longer, there’s been some conversation about whether or not the K-drama momentum has slowed, or even stalled. In 2026, it seems like Chinese dramas have been buzzier, even among native Korean viewers. Pursuit of Jade, a costume drama, earlier this year broke through in Korea as well as internationally, and we saw the same thing happen recently with The Early Spring, both Netflix titles.
We may be ending the year on a high note for K-dramas though because one of the most highly anticipated series finally has new key art and a release date: December 11.
Tantara, formerly titled Slowly and Intensely, about the Korean star system, stars two of the biggest and most enduring stars to come out of the Korean entertainment industry – Song Hye-kyo and Gong Yoo. If you need a rough, inexact equivalent, it’s basically the Angelina Jolie and George Clooney and/or Leonardo DiCaprio of Korea. Both have been increasingly more selective about their projects, this is a mega pairing for K-drama fans around the world.
What’s also notable is that at a time when K-dramas have been getting shorter and more condensed, moving from what used to be the standard 16 episodes to 12 or even 10 and sometimes fewer, Tantara is supposedly 22 episodes. I haven’t seen an official confirmation about the length but the number 22 is showing up everywhere which would support the report that the budget for Tantara was 80 billion won, or about $60 million USD. This is a project with a financial scale to match its creative ambition. I’m so curious to see what the release schedule will be – if Tantara will follow the standard Korean format of two episodes a week, or if it’ll be split into two segments, or if we’ll get it all at once. But, as the kids say, I am sat. I love Song Hye-kyo. I LOOOOOVE Gong Yoo. And, coincidentally, Tantara is coming basically on the 10th anniversary of one of Gong Yoo’s most beloved dramas, Goblin, one of a handful of K-dramas that defined this last decade of the Korean television boom. So it’s interesting that he’s now starring in a series that is a throwback to the roots of modern Korean pop culture. I cannot wait for this press tour.
Look at this face card!
Yours in gossip,
Lainey
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