Son Ye-jin Returns in a Seductive Period Thriller, and Scandal Premieres Sooner Than You Think

The first images from Netflix's Scandal are out, and they confirm what the premise promised: a Joseon-era power struggle wrapped in silk and secrets. Netflix dropped a set of character stills on the 3rd, giving fans their clearest look yet at Son Ye-jin, Ji Chang-wook, and Nana in what may be one of the more anticipated Korean period dramas of the year.

A classic novel, a new setting

Scandal draws from Pierre Choderlos de Laclos's 1782 epistolary novel Les Liaisons Dangereuses, transposing its web of seduction and manipulation from 18th-century French aristocracy into Joseon Korea. Director Jung Ji-woo, known for building quietly unsettling atmospheres in films like Eungo and Intrusion, is behind the camera, a choice that signals this won't be a straightforward romance.

The story centers on three characters whose fates become entangled through a clandestine wager. Son Ye-jin plays Lady Jo, a woman of remarkable talent living under the constraints placed on women of her era. Ji Chang-wook takes the role of Jo Won, Joseon's most accomplished seducer and, notably, Lady Jo's cousin, the two grew up exchanging their innermost thoughts as literary pen pals. Nana plays Huiyeon, a young woman drawn into their game.

What the stills reveal

The released images do real work in establishing each character's energy. Son Ye-jin's Lady Jo sits in her inner quarters dressed in composed, modest attire, but there's a tension in her stillness that the frame can't quite contain. Ji Chang-wook's Jo Won, meanwhile, wears his ease like armor, that half-smiling, knowing look that suggests he already knows how every conversation ends. It's a sharp contrast, and it's doing exactly what it needs to.

Nana appears in a quieter register than fans might expect, dressed in plain hemp cloth and embroidering, a domestic stillness that reads as a deliberate setup for whatever disruption is coming. It's a notably different look for her, and one of the more intriguing signals from the stills.

The images also tease the shape of the relationships. Jo Won moves close to Lady Jo in one frame, their history as childhood confidants now charged with something more complicated. In another, he approaches Huiyeon with the calculated warmth of someone who has a bet to win, she pushes back, but a shot of the two nearly kissing makes clear the resistance won't be simple. A separate still of Lady Jo and Huiyeon facing each other raises its own questions: Lady Jo holds the upper hand in the wager, but both women share the same fundamental constraints of life in Joseon, and how that shapes their dynamic feels like one of the show's more interesting threads.

Premiere date

Scandal arrives on Netflix on the 18th. With a literary source that has already inspired multiple acclaimed film adaptations globally, and a cast this strong, it has every reason to travel well beyond Korean audiences.