South Korea’s content funding agency has cleared IU and Byeon Woo-seok’s MBC drama ‘21st Century Grand Prince’s Wife’ over the history distortion controversy that engulfed the series, ruling that the production passed its post-broadcast evaluation and keeping its government support intact.
According to a report by Sports Kyunghyang on November 6, the Korea Creative Content Agency (KOCCA) carried out a result evaluation of the drama in June and issued a passing grade. The agency has not moved to claw back any production support funds, and the outcome had not changed as of early this month.
The 12-episode drama, which aired on MBC from April 10 to May 16, was selected as a long-form drama under KOCCA’s 2025 program for OTT-specialized content production support, in the intellectual property acquisition category. The program backed seven works in total with 7.5 billion won, with up to 2 billion won available per long-form drama. The exact amount paid to ‘21st Century Grand Prince’s Wife’ has not been disclosed.
KOCCA had said on May 21 that the production budget had already been spent, but that it would comprehensively assess whether any violations had occurred during the project. At the time, the agency said a clawback or reduction of the support funds was possible depending on the findings. The June evaluation has now settled that question in the production’s favor.
The controversy centered on episode 11. Despite the drama’s setting of a 21st-century constitutional monarchy, subjects at the coronation ceremony shouted ‘cheonse’ - a form of address used by vassal states - instead of ‘manse.’ The king was also shown wearing a nine-bead crown, the headgear worn by officials of a Chinese vassal state, rather than the twelve-bead crown worn by the emperor of a sovereign state.
As criticism grew, the production team, along with stars IU and Byeon Woo-seok and writer Yoo Ji-won, apologized. ‘We sincerely apologize for causing concern due to worldview setting and historical accuracy issues,’ they said.
The drama had drawn intense attention before its premiere on the strength of its star-studded cast, and the controversy became one of the most closely watched disputes of the spring drama season, as viewers debated whether a fictional monarchy setting excused the historical inaccuracies. The passing evaluation brings the debate over public funding to a close, even as the apology remains the production’s final word on the portrayal itself.
