'Nine Tailed' is back for a second season, set in 1938

From left, actors Lee Dong-wook, Kim Bum, Kim So-yeon and Ryu Kyung-soo pose for a photo during an online press conference for ″The Tale of the Nine Tailed 1938″ on Wednesday. [CJ ENM]

The second season of tvN hit fantasy drama "The Tale of the Nine Tailed" is back again for the first time in three years, and this time, the series is set in 1938, when Korea was being occupied by Japan. There's of course a twist.

The drama series, which is set to air from Saturday evening, is a fantasy action drama series that revolves around a nine-tailed fox creature called gumiho that can shapeshift into a beautiful woman who seduces men and kills them. Actor Lee Dong-wook plays a gumiho named Lee Yeon, who slips and makes an emergency landing in the chaotic era of 1938 and tries everything to go back to the modern age. Lee also played the role of Lee Yeon, a male gumiho that received praise as a novel interpretation of the traditionally female creature.

"There was no reason to continue the story into the second season unless we were sure it would be better than the first," said Lee during an online press conference for the drama Wednesday. "We had a lot of conversations together with the director and the whole cast, and there was always the assumption that the second season would be much more exciting than the first."

In the first season, Lee gets involved in a romance with a human, and in the second season, "everything but romance takes place" for the main protagonist, according to Lee.

"If season one was about the personal and emotional side of the character of Lee Yeon, the upcoming season is about all the things that he was negligent about because of love in the first season," said director Kang Shin-kyo. "Lee Yeon sets out to repay for those things that he did not pay attention to."

Actors from the first season - Kim So-yeon, Kim Bum and Ryoo Kyung-soo – all have joined in the second season.

Regarding the casting of the actors, director Kang said that the four main actors embodied a "fantasy element" in themselves.

"I think for actors in a fantasy drama like this, the faces themselves need to express a fantasy element," said Kang. "Each of the four actors had that element already and that is why we cast them in this series."

"The Tale of the Nine Tailed" season one had garnered a 5.8 percent viewership rating when it aired in 2020, receiving good reviews regarding its blend of contemporary themes with Korean folklore.

The second season will air its first episode at 9:20 p.m. on Saturday.

BY LIM JEONG-WON [lim.jeongwon@joongang.co.kr]