Kim Hyun Joong Offered Role In Athena

Producers have offered a role to idol singer Kim Hyun-joong of boy band SS501 (who made his acting debut in 2009’s Boys Before Flowers) in the upcoming IRIS spinoff Athena: Goddess of War. Kim has met several times with a senior exec of Taewon Entertainment, the production company behind IRIS and its related projects, to discuss joining the production and possible character details.

This suggests that Taewon is following the casting formula of the original — that is, one big-name Hallyu movie star (Jung Woo-sung), a few solid stars with proven acting chops (Cha Seung-won, Su Ae), a controversial pick (Lee Jia), and an idol to attract the young generation.

But Kim Hyun-joong — really, Athena? (I know I’m opening myself up for hate, so I’ll give you Kim fans fair warning and a minute to leave this post, so you don’t feel you have been unfairly subjected to the opinions of a stupid silly poopyhead who sees nothing positive in this news whatsoever.)

Oh Athena, you started off so well, even if you did have to mar that by adding Lee Jia. But I could live with that. Yet it’s like they saw all the complaints about TOP’s acting deficiencies and decided they wanted to outdo themselves for the spinoff. At least TOP looked entirely at home in a spy action thriller; imagining Kim as a spy makes me cringe. Because Kim Hyun-joong is not a good actor, not close by a mile. And I’m not slamming his real-life personality or his variety show persona — both of which seem fun and entertaining — but purely his acting abilities. He took one of the easiest characters to like in Boys Before Flowers, nay, in all of kdramas — the very archetype of the likable second lead — and made him a joke. I don’t even get the sense (from interviews) that he WANTS to be an actor.

A source with Kim’s management stated on the 11th that he would be working on SS501 activities through the end of the month so he has not made a decision. However, after getting the offer for Athena, he has been seriously considering the role.

Via OSEN, Hankook Ilbo

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