Shin Min-a and Lee Jong-suk faced the press in Seoul on November 3, one day before Disney+ launches ‘The Remarried Empress’, with the first four episodes arriving on November 4.
The production presentation, held at Conrad Seoul in Yeouido, brought the fantasy romance’s four leads together ahead of a premiere that has been building for weeks. Shin plays Navier, the perfect empress of the Eastern Empire, while Lee plays Heinrey, the prince of the Western Kingdom.
In the story, Emperor Sovieshu, played by Ju Ji-hoon, falls for Rashta, an escaped slave played by Lee Se-young, and tells Navier he wants a divorce. Navier accepts, but on one condition: that her remarriage to Heinrey is approved. That bargain sets up the central triangle — a broken imperial marriage, a new romance, and a court watching every move.
Shin said she thought long and hard about how to play Navier, describing the challenge as balancing the empress the public sees with the human being underneath. She said that balance was what would let viewers empathise with Navier. She also spoke about the pressure and novelty of matching the character’s look, saying performing in the drama’s elaborate sets had become a lasting memory.
Lee’s role carries the drama’s most unusual device. Heinrey belongs to a clan that can transform into birds, and the bird form known as Queen was built from close observation of real birds, with feather and eye colour tied to Heinrey’s appearance. Lee said he discussed his character’s movements with the production team, admitted he felt uneasy before seeing how the bird scenes would turn out, and said the transformation sequences, in which Heinrey shifts from bird to human form unclothed, were the part he found most burdensome.
Disney+ will release episodes one to four on November 4, followed by two episodes each week, for a total of ten episodes. The source web novel and webtoon had already accumulated 2.97 billion cumulative views as of July 2026, a built-in audience for the launch.
The press event caps a month of staged reveals: the four leads greeted fans at the Busan International Film Festival on October 10, Disney+ unveiled painted character posters on October 28, and an October 30 preview showed bird-form Heinrey overhearing Navier praise his looks. The question now is how the fantasy premise will play once full episodes, rather than teasers, are on screen.
