Go Joon Joins Lee Do-hyun and Jeon So-nee in Crime Action Drama Pagoejihwang

Go Joon is back on the small screen — and his first project since marrying in April is a good one to return with.

Pagoejihwang (literal translation: Destruction Earth Emperor) is a crime action drama about two detectives who swing between good cop and bad cop to protect victims in high-stakes personal security cases. The central duo is already set: Lee Do-hyun plays Hwang Cheon-gi, an undercover detective so deep inside a criminal organization that he's gone roughly eighty percent feral, and Jeon So-nee plays Kim Hee-seon, a personal protection officer who's been quietly sitting on her own destructive instincts. The premise is essentially: two people with barely-contained chaos energy, tasked with keeping civilians alive. The catharsis potential is real.

Go Joon joins as Cho Tae-seop, the chief of Jeonhan Police Station. He's described as an elite-track career cop who almost never lets his true intentions show — a mystery-box character in a drama that's already stacking its cast with people who are not what they appear. Go Joon has spent years being the most unsettling presence in whatever room his character walks into (Rescue Me, Misty, Fiery Priest, Good Boy), so casting him as the inscrutable police chief is a genuinely smart move. You're never quite sure if he's an obstacle or an ally, and that ambiguity is exactly where he thrives.

Behind the camera, director Shin Kyung-soo is attached — he directed Next Door to a Fire Station, Six Flying Dragons, and Nokdookkot (Flower of Evil's spiritual predecessor in terms of period tension). His track record skews toward dramas with real momentum and ensemble casts that actually feel like they inhabit the same world, which bodes well for a show built around a chaotic detective partnership.

Production is set to begin in earnest in the second half of this year once casting wraps, with a 2026 release as the target. Broadcast slot and platform are not confirmed yet.

The Lee Do-hyun angle alone makes this one to watch — he's coming off a stretch of projects where he's been asked to carry a lot of emotional weight solo, and a crime action format with a proper ensemble (including Go Joon as a wildcard superior) feels like a different gear entirely. Jeon So-nee as a personal protection officer with suppressed destructive instincts is the kind of role she can do a lot with quietly.

No confirmed premiere window beyond the 2026 target, so this is one to put on the radar now and check back on when the broadcast slot drops.