It took a year just to cast Lim Si-wan — K-drama's casting war is now the biggest production bottleneck

Lim Si-wan was a hard get. Kim Ho-jun, the CP behind tvN's upcoming drama 나의 유죄인간 (My Guilty Man), told the audience at tvN Creator Talk 2026 on September 16 that it took "about one year" to cast the actor. Even then, it required a very specific pitch.

"He was like a cautious cat," Kim said of Lim Si-wan at the event, held at CJ ENM Talent Studio in Mapo-gu, Seoul. The hook that eventually worked: "Let's create a romance character you've never seen anywhere else." Kim wanted to push Lim, who had built his reputation in genre projects, into romantic comedy territory — describing him as "the epitome of jalsaengbbeum" (a portmanteau of handsome and pretty).

One year to cast, one year to wait

My Guilty Man is a close-contact thriller romance. An arrogant chaebol heir suspected of murder. A special-forces-trained detective who goes undercover as his personal secretary. Kim described it as a work with BL codes where "the catharsis of a typical romance comedy stands out." The cast also includes Seol In-ah, Kim Jung-hyun, and Yeon Woo. It premieres on tvN on October 19.

For Seol In-ah, the casting logic was different. Kim watched her physicality and performance on the variety show 무쇠소녀단 (Iron Girls), and wanted her to channel Go Eun-chan from Coffee Prince. "Right after the meeting ended, I asked her to go to a hair salon," he said. "The visuals turned out very well — I'm satisfied."

The year-long casting grind isn't unique to this show. Director Kim Mi-jo spoke about the film 경주기행 (Gyeongju Trip). Lee Jung-eun signed on first but then waited over a year while the rest of the cast came together. Gong Hyo-jin and Park So-dam eventually joined within roughly two months of each other, completing the lineup. Kim Mi-jo admitted she "thought it would never be made."

The new bottleneck: actors, not money

The industry shift is structural. A production company official put it plainly: "These days, even with a good script and production conditions, it's not easy to match the schedule of the desired actor. In the past we waited for investment and scheduling; now there's a saying that we wait for actors."

Broadcast dramas, films, and OTT originals are all competing for the same short list of proven leads at the same time. Popular actors lock in their next projects early, which means productions queue up and wait. One actor's delayed decision can cascade into scheduling problems for every other cast member and the entire shoot.

Production teams now have to go beyond handing over a script. They argue why this specific actor belongs in this specific role and what new dimension the work can give them. That's essentially what Kim Ho-jun did with Lim Si-wan for a full year. The old gatekeepers — investment and broadcast slots — haven't disappeared. They've just been joined by a third one that nobody can buy their way past.