"Grid" Writer Explains How She Came Up With Sci-Fi Concept + Praises Casting Of Seo Kang Joon, Kim Ah Joong, Lee Si Young

Lee Soo Yeon, the writer of the upcoming Disney+ original series “Grid,” has shared an interview about the new drama.

Lee Soo Yeon is best known as the writer behind the “Forest of Secrets” series (also known as “Stranger”). Her new series, “Grid,” is a mystery thriller about different individuals trying to track down a person known as the Ghost, each for their own reasons. 24 years ago, the Ghost created a shield called “the Grid” to protect humanity from life-threatening solar winds. After its creation, the Ghost disappeared until they suddenly re-emerged as the accomplice of a murderer.

Lee Soo Yeon said, “At first the title was just ‘O,’ or a circle. It was about how time doesn’t flow, how time is a concept made for the convenience of humans, and that time and space have no end or beginning. I liked that it was a circle and could be read as the letter ‘O,’ but I also wanted a title that everyone could pronounce the same. That’s why I naturally chose ‘Grid’ as the title, since the drama introduces the concept of ‘the Grid.'”

Asked how she’d come up with the idea, she said, “I was working on the last episode of ‘Forest of Secrets 2’ and there was a movie I really liked on TV. But I wondered, ‘What would happen if the opposite situation from this movie occurred?’ and it spun out from there. I wanted to do a drama that was different from what I’d done before. Before, I had tackled current and real social problems, and had to explain basic situations with a lot of lines. As I watched the filming process, I felt that that had been a burden to the actors. I decided to try a drama that had a lot less lines and a situation that had no prior information.”

She added, “I didn’t come up with the solar wind idea right away. The creator of the Grid, the Ghost, is someone who travels through space and time and appears after 24 years to protect a murderer. There are a lot of time-warp concepts, so I had to think about why someone would do something as difficult as moving through space and time to do something like that. I also felt like we could no longer ignore the problem of the environment. The drama tackles the problem of solar winds, but we’re also currently in danger from global warming and rising sea levels.”

The drama has an all-star cast that includes Seo Kang Joon, Kim Ah Joong, Kim Moo Yeol, Kim Sung Kyun, and Lee Si Young. Regarding the casting, the writer said, “For Seo Kang Joon, I had always felt that he was really good at acting while watching his previous projects, but I felt that anew this time. His character, Sae Ha, hides a pain in his heart, and instead of being resolved, it grows harder and more tangled as time goes by. If you have a bright and clear face, then you have to make up incidents, but Seo Kang Joon has the kind of face that doesn’t require that. When he becomes obsessed with the Ghost, you really feel that Sae Ha is absorbed in that one goal. He managed to express the heart and feelings of a very difficult character.”

She continued, “Kim Ah Joong is someone who combines both strength and fragility, just like her character Sae Byeok requires. She has a lot of inner conflict and is shaken, but she is so resolute and enduring on the outside that the people around her aren’t aware of it.” About Lee Si Young, she said, “I really wanted her to take on the role. She doesn’t have a lot of lines, so I wondered if she’d really want to do it, but when I heard she’d been confirmed, I applauded on the inside. She was so good that I never once even considered anybody else. If we have the chance to work together again, I want to create a lot of refreshing action scenes for her. I’ve felt her muscles in real life.”

“Grid” premieres on February 16. Check out a teaser here!

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