Is Netflix’s The Scandal a Remake of Untold Scandal? What’s Different From the 2003 Movie

Netflix’s upcoming Korean series The Scandal may look familiar to longtime K-drama and Korean film fans.

A dangerous wager.
A notorious seducer.
A powerful woman manipulating the game from behind the scenes.
And an innocent woman who becomes caught between them.

If that reminds you of the 2003 Korean film Untold Scandal, starring Bae Yong-joon, Lee Mi-sook and Jeon Do-yeon, you are not imagining the connection.

But there is an important reason not to assume Netflix’s The Scandal will simply retell the same story.

Director Jung Ji-woo has already said the new series is “very different” from the 2003 film, explaining that the production went back to the original French novel and rewrote its characters and relationships.

So what exactly is the connection between The Scandal, Untold Scandal and Dangerous Liaisons?

And how different could Netflix’s version actually be?

Is The Scandal a Remake of the 2003 Korean Movie?

Yes — but “remake” does not tell the whole story.

The 2003 film Untold Scandal was itself an adaptation of Pierre Choderlos de Laclos’s famous 1782 French novel Les Liaisons dangereuses, better known in English as Dangerous Liaisons.

The Korean film moved the story from pre-Revolutionary France to late-18th-century Joseon Korea.

Netflix’s 2026 The Scandal returns to this world of aristocratic desire, manipulation and seduction, once again placing the story in Joseon.

The new series stars:

• Son Ye-jin as Lady Cho
• Ji Chang-wook as Cho Won
• NANA as Hui-yeon

At the center of the story is a dangerous wager involving Lady Cho and Cho Won, with Hui-yeon becoming entangled in their game.

That basic setup will sound very familiar to viewers of the 2003 film.

But the similarities may become much less straightforward once the story begins.

The Director Says the New Scandal Is “Very Different”

This may be the most important thing to know before watching the Netflix series.

At a press conference ahead of the September 18 premiere, director Jung Ji-woo said the new version is very different from the 2003 movie.

Rather than simply expanding the old film into a longer Netflix series, Jung said the production returned to the French novel and rewrote the characters and their relationships.

That distinction matters.

It suggests that Netflix’s The Scandal should not be approached as an eight-episode recreation of scenes audiences already saw in 2003.

The basic DNA may remain the same.

The relationships, motivations and path to the ending may not.

The Same Three-Person Game — But Possibly Different Players

Netflix describes Lady Cho as a gifted woman whose abilities cannot be contained by the restrictions placed on women in Joseon society.

Cho Won is the most famous playboy of his time.

Hui-yeon is the woman who becomes caught in their dangerous wager.

On the surface, this preserves the central triangle familiar from earlier versions of Dangerous Liaisons.

But Netflix’s promotional material already hints that Lady Cho may have motivations that are not immediately visible.

That could become one of the most important differences in the new adaptation.

If the characters have been substantially rewritten, the real question may not be:

“Will the Netflix series follow the 2003 movie?”

It may instead be:

“Which character do we think we already understand — but actually don’t?”

Why Hui-yeon Could Be Especially Important

Hui-yeon, played by NANA, initially appears to occupy the position of the woman drawn unwillingly into Lady Cho and Cho Won’s dangerous game.

But this is one character worth watching carefully.

A modern adaptation has much more room than a two-hour film to develop the supposedly innocent person caught inside the scheme.

That creates several possibilities.

Could Hui-yeon have greater agency than viewers expect?

Could her relationship with Lady Cho become more important?

Could the person who appears to be a pawn eventually influence the game itself?

Before release, those questions cannot be answered definitively.

But the director’s statement that the characters and relationships have been rewritten makes them worth asking.

Why an Eight-Episode Series Changes the Story

The 2003 Untold Scandal had to tell its story within the limits of a feature film.

Netflix’s The Scandal is an eight-part series.

That extra time gives the writers room to do something potentially much more interesting than simply recreate the original plot.

They can expand:

• hidden character motivations,
• relationships outside the central seduction game,
• political and social pressures of Joseon,
• the consequences of female desire in a restrictive society,
• changes in loyalty,
• and potentially new twists before the ending.

The format itself therefore makes substantial adaptation almost inevitable.

The important question is whether those changes make this familiar story feel genuinely new.

What About Dangerous Liaisons and Cruel Intentions?

Some viewers encountering The Scandal may also recognize similarities to Dangerous Liaisons or even Cruel Intentions.

That is because these stories belong to the same adaptation family.

The starting point is Laclos’s Les Liaisons dangereuses, published in 1782.

Its central idea — privileged people turning seduction into a game of power, revenge and manipulation — has inspired numerous adaptations around the world.

The 2003 Korean Untold Scandal transformed that premise by placing it inside Joseon society.

Netflix is now reinterpreting it again for a modern global television audience.

So The Scandal is not simply copying a 2003 Korean movie.

It is the latest reinterpretation of a story that has been repeatedly reinvented for different eras and cultures.

Will Netflix Change the Ending?

This is probably one of the biggest questions for viewers familiar with the previous versions.

For now, Netflix has not revealed enough to answer it.

And that uncertainty may be exactly what makes the new adaptation interesting.

If the characters and relationships really have been rewritten as significantly as the director suggests, assuming that every character will make the same choices — or reach the same destination — could be a mistake.

The series does not necessarily need to abandon the basic structure of Dangerous Liaisons to surprise viewers.

A changed motivation, a hidden relationship, an unexpected betrayal or a different decision at a crucial moment could completely alter how we interpret the ending.

That may ultimately determine whether The Scandal feels like a fresh adaptation or merely another version of a very familiar story.

The Real Question: How Much Has The Scandal Changed?

For viewers who have never seen Untold Scandal, Netflix’s series can be watched as a new Joseon romance about desire, manipulation and forbidden relationships.

For viewers who already know the 2003 movie or Dangerous Liaisons, however, there is another layer of suspense.

We already know the game.

We think we know the players.

We may even think we know where the story is heading.

And that gives the new series an opportunity to use our expectations against us.

Director Jung Ji-woo has already warned us that this version is very different.

Now the question is whether The Scandal can make a centuries-old story unpredictable again.

The Scandal premieres globally on Netflix on September 18, 2026.

This article was written before the series premiere and will be updated after release with confirmed differences between the Netflix series, the 2003 film Untold Scandal and the original Dangerous Liaisons story.