Netflix’s upcoming Korean series The Scandal brings together three names that immediately attract attention: Son Ye-jin, Ji Chang-wook and NANA.
But the casting raises a more interesting question than simply who is starring in the drama:
Who exactly are they playing — and how are their characters connected?
At the center of The Scandal are Lady Cho, Cho Won and Hui-yeon, three people drawn into a dangerous game involving seduction, desire and power in Joseon Korea.
The basic setup may sound familiar to anyone who knows Dangerous Liaisons or the 2003 Korean film Untold Scandal.
However, director Jung Ji-woo has indicated that the new Netflix adaptation rewrites its characters and relationships after returning to the original French novel.
That means viewers should be careful about assuming they already know exactly who these people are — or what they will eventually do.
Here is what we know about the three central characters before the series premieres.
Son Ye-jin Plays Lady Cho
Son Ye-jin plays Lady Cho, one of the most important characters in The Scandal.
Lady Cho is presented as an intelligent and talented woman living in a society where women have extremely limited opportunities to exercise power openly.
That immediately makes her more interesting than a simple romantic villain.
She lives within the restrictions of Joseon society, but she is not necessarily willing to accept the role that society has assigned to her.
And that may help explain why relationships, desire and manipulation become forms of power.
What Does Lady Cho Want?
This could become one of the central mysteries of the series.
On the surface, Lady Cho is connected to the dangerous wager involving Cho Won and Hui-yeon.
But the important question is not simply what she asks Cho Won to do.
It is why she wants it to happen.
Is it entertainment?
Revenge?
Jealousy?
A challenge to Cho Won?
Or is there a deeper motivation that Netflix has deliberately kept hidden before release?
Because the production has emphasized that the characters and relationships have been rewritten, Lady Cho’s true motivation is one of the details worth watching closely.
A character who appears to be controlling everyone else may also be hiding something herself.
Ji Chang-wook Plays Cho Won
Ji Chang-wook plays Cho Won, a notorious playboy whose reputation for seduction makes him the natural participant in Lady Cho’s dangerous game.
Cho Won is confident in his ability to attract women.
For him, seduction appears to be something he understands and controls.
That confidence is important because stories descended from Dangerous Liaisons often revolve around a simple contradiction:
What happens when someone who treats love as a game develops feelings that are no longer part of the game?
Cho Won may believe he understands desire better than everyone around him.
But understanding other people’s emotions is not the same as controlling your own.
That could become the character’s greatest weakness.
What Is the Relationship Between Lady Cho and Cho Won?
This is likely to be one of the most important relationships in the drama.
Lady Cho and Cho Won are not simply two strangers who happen to participate in the same scheme.
They are connected closely enough for Lady Cho to challenge him and for Cho Won to enter the game.
Their relationship appears built around several competing forces:
trust, rivalry, attraction, pride and power.
Who actually controls whom?
That question may matter more than the wager itself.
At first, Lady Cho may appear to be the person setting the rules while Cho Won carries out the seduction.
But relationships based on manipulation rarely remain stable.
If Cho Won begins making decisions Lady Cho did not anticipate — especially because of genuine emotion — their balance of power could change dramatically.
And if Lady Cho has motivations Cho Won does not fully understand, he may never have been as free as he believed.
NANA Plays Hui-yeon
NANA plays Hui-yeon, the third central figure in the relationship.
Based on the basic premise, Hui-yeon becomes entangled in the dangerous wager involving Lady Cho and Cho Won.
That makes her appear, initially, to be the target.
But “target” and “victim” are not necessarily the same thing.
This may be one of the most important distinctions to watch when the series is released.
Earlier adaptations of Dangerous Liaisons give audiences certain expectations about the woman pursued by the seducer.
Netflix has an opportunity to use those expectations against viewers.
And Hui-yeon may be the character with the greatest potential to do that.
Is Hui-yeon Really Just a Victim?
Before the premiere, there is no confirmed answer.
But it is an important question.
If The Scandal simply presents Hui-yeon as an innocent woman deceived by two sophisticated manipulators, audiences familiar with the original story may find much of her journey predictable.
But what if she understands more than Lady Cho and Cho Won believe?
What if she discovers the wager earlier?
What if she has her own reason for continuing the relationship?
Or what if her decisions ultimately force the two supposed players to react to her instead?
These are possibilities rather than confirmed plot details.
Still, the director’s comments about rewriting the relationships make Hui-yeon particularly difficult to predict before release.
The person who appears to have the least power at the beginning could eventually become the person who changes the entire game.
The Scandal Character Relationship Chart
The basic relationship can currently be understood like this:
Lady Cho (Son Ye-jin)
↓ initiates or influences the dangerous game
Cho Won (Ji Chang-wook)
↓ approaches / seduces
Hui-yeon (NANA)
But that simple diagram probably does not tell the whole story.
A more useful way to think about the relationship may be:
Lady Cho ↔ Cho Won
Power, rivalry, trust, attraction and manipulation
Cho Won ↔ Hui-yeon
Seduction that may develop into genuine emotion
Lady Cho ↔ Hui-yeon
Potentially one of the most important relationships still hidden before release
That final connection deserves particular attention.
If Netflix wants to distinguish this adaptation from previous versions, changing the relationship between the two women could significantly alter the story.
Why Lady Cho May Be the Key to Netflix’s Version
Among the three characters, Lady Cho may reveal most clearly what Netflix wants to do differently with this adaptation.
A modern audience is unlikely to be satisfied with a powerful female character whose motivations are reduced to simple jealousy or romantic rivalry.
The Joseon setting provides an opportunity to explore something larger.
Lady Cho is intelligent and capable, yet she lives in a system where her gender limits how openly she can exercise those abilities.
That creates an interesting possibility:
What if manipulating relationships is not merely Lady Cho’s game, but one of the few forms of power available to her?
If the drama develops that idea, her actions may still be cruel or destructive without becoming one-dimensional.
The audience may understand why she behaves as she does even when they disagree with her choices.
That would make Lady Cho far more complicated — and potentially much more dangerous.
Cho Won’s Biggest Conflict May Be Himself
Cho Won appears to begin the story with an advantage.
He understands the game.
He has experience.
He is confident.
And he believes he can separate seduction from real emotion.
That makes his potential weakness obvious.
He may be the one person who does not realize when the game stops being a game.
If his feelings toward Hui-yeon become genuine, he faces a conflict between his reputation, his relationship with Lady Cho and his own emotions.
The most interesting version of Cho Won would therefore not simply ask whether he succeeds in seducing Hui-yeon.
It would ask:
At what point does Cho Won realize that he is no longer the person controlling the relationship?
Hui-yeon Could Determine Whether The Scandal Feels Fresh
This is where the adaptation faces its biggest test.
Lady Cho and Cho Won are naturally dramatic characters.
A brilliant manipulator and a famous seducer are easy to make interesting.
Hui-yeon is harder.
If she exists mainly to be desired, deceived and hurt, the central relationship could feel too familiar.
But if she has agency, hidden motivations or the ability to change the direction of the story, the entire triangle becomes less predictable.
That is why NANA’s character may be especially important to the script freshness of The Scandal.
The question is not only whether Hui-yeon falls for Cho Won.
It is whether the audience correctly understands Hui-yeon in the first place.
Who Is Really Manipulating Whom?
That may ultimately be the best question to carry into The Scandal.
At the beginning, the answer appears obvious.
Lady Cho creates the game.
Cho Won plays it.
Hui-yeon becomes the target.
But if the series follows exactly that line from beginning to end, viewers familiar with Dangerous Liaisons will have a major advantage: they already understand the structure.
A stronger adaptation would gradually destabilize those roles.
The controller becomes emotionally vulnerable.
The seducer becomes seduced.
The target gains power.
The person who seemed to understand everything discovers that they misunderstood the one person who mattered most.
Whether Netflix actually takes the story in those directions remains to be seen.
But if The Scandal wants to make a centuries-old story feel new, changing who holds power at different moments of the relationship may be more important than changing the basic premise itself.
The Three Characters to Watch on September 18
Before release, the basic roles seem clear:
Son Ye-jin’s Lady Cho is the powerful strategist.
Ji Chang-wook’s Cho Won is the confident seducer.
NANA’s Hui-yeon is the woman drawn into their dangerous wager.
But those descriptions may only tell us where the characters begin.
The real story will be about where they end up — and how many times the balance of power changes before they get there.
For viewers who already know Dangerous Liaisons or Untold Scandal, that may be the most interesting reason to watch.
We may recognize the three positions on the board.
What we do not yet know is whether Netflix has changed the rules of the game.
The Scandal premieres globally on Netflix on September 18, 2026.
This character guide was written before the premiere and will be updated after release as the characters’ hidden motivations, relationships and major turning points are revealed.