Vampire has become a trend in Kdramaland this year, with Blood and currently airing Orange Marmalade giving us a taste of the Kdrama vampires. Scholar Who Walks the Night will take the trend to fictional Joseon this July, and more news has came out as MBC prepares for the drama premiere. This is also another adaptation of manhwa of the same title so expectation is high for the series to come out well.

After a bit of casting conflicts in the beginning, Scholar has secured a promising cast, with Lee Jun-ki and Lee Yoo-bi leading the cast. Shim Changmin and Kim So-eun rounds up the standard love square but Lee Soo-hyuk is also included to create tension between the leads. So..I guess it will be a conflict pentagon? Or something like that?

Here’s an early description of each main character and hopefully they will stick to this one without changing much!

Kim Sung-yeol (Lee Jun-ki): A mysterious vampire scholar with exceptional beauty (because, duh, vampires!) who lived in a village. He once dreamed of building a happy nation with his closest friend the Crown Prince, but a twist of fate made him lose both his lover and his friend. He vowed to live his life fighting against the evil, hiding his broken heart.

Jo Yang-sun (Lee Yoo-bi): A flower boy bookseller who turned out to be a lady dressed in man’s clothes. She braved the night covering the whole capital to sell books, making name of herself as the best bookseller in the entire Hanyang. An encounter she had with Sung-yeol in one of her book  transactions turned out to be a fateful meeting for both of them.

Yi Yoon (Shim Changmin): Grand Heir cum faceless novelist and at the same time, a Crown Prince of many secrets. Once a natural playboy who couldn’t let a day pass without a woman by his side, his father’s death changed him into a quiet man hiding his claws, waiting for the right time to make his move. He found his reasons to live after his encounters with Yang-sun and Sung-yeol.

Gwi (Lee Soo-hyuk): Even without Sung-yeol’s existence, he would always be the vampire who wanted to dominate everything in the fight of good versus evil. Using his beauty to seduce the mortals, he stayed hidden as the world fell into his hands.

Yi Myung-hee/ Choi Hye-ryung (Kim So-eun): The woman who gave up her life without hesitation for the sake of sparing her lover Sung-yeol, Myung-hee. The haughty noble lady whose thoughts were to no one, Hye-ryung. The key to all the things happening inside the palace..a lady playing double duty.

Soo-hyang (Jang Hee-jin): An alluring courtesan who harboured a one-sided love towrds Sung-yeol. She vowed to stay beside the immortal Sung-yeol; however, as her love became stronger, her will to become a vampire also grew stronger..

There’s no confirmed date yet for Scholar‘s premiere although Warm and Cozy is ending soon, probably due to the accident which happened on the 10th this month. It caused Lee Jun-ki to break his nose (ouch) and Lee Yoo-bi to hurt her back (double ouch). Lee Jun-ki has returned to set on the 18th but Lee Yoo-bi was still at the hospital for further treatment. I hope they will allow her to recover before resuming the filming, and the series will proceed smoothly without any unfortunate events.

Scholar Who Walks the Night is directed by the director of The Moon Embracing the Sun, Lee Sung-joon, while Jang Hyun-joo, who penned Coffee Prince, is the scriptwriter.  We’ve got some stills, although I do wish to see more of vampire Lee Jun-ki.

Please give me more close-ups~~

Ummm isn’t he too young to have the ‘stache and beard? ;;

I think he IS a vampire.

God, Sung-yeol looked so miserable…

Lee Hyun-woo’s special appearance as Crown Prince Jeonghyun.

A meeting under the rain?

Our flower boy lady bookseller!

Seung-yeol’s lover or Yoon’s consort? Or both?

Sung-yeol and the sidekicks.

What happened in the bookshop?

Gwi’s teacher and the one behind Sung-yeol’s transformation into a vampire, Hae-sun.

Who will win this staring contest: the king or the crown prince?

Girl talk aka gossiping about the vampire hottie 😛

Beautiful character stills have been released and I have to admit that they’re prettier than Arang’s promo material 😉

Official posters for Scholar Who Walks the Night!

Good news: the official site is open! Check out the beautiful character introduction there ~ http://www.imbc.com/broad/tv/drama/sunbi/index.html

Teaser 1 confirms that it will premiere on 8 July. Mark your calendar, guys and girls!

Teaser 2 proves that the show’s going to be so beautiful.

(Credit to MBC)