Lee Joon Returns With New Short Drama 'The Tax Reaper'

Actor Lee Joon is stepping into a new kind of role, this time as a cool-headed investigation team leader at South Korea's National Tax Service.

Lee has been cast in the upcoming short-form drama "The Tax Reaper", an adaptation of the web novel by author Dongmyeongeobuk. The series will stream exclusively on the global short drama platform Lezhin Snack in the second half of this year.

In the show, Lee plays Shin Jae-hyun, a tax service officer with an unusual gift. He can see exactly how much money someone has dodged in taxes. He uses that ability to chase down corruption among chaebol families and the politically powerful, going after targets that other officials have not been willing to touch. The character is built around sharp judgment and a firm sense of right and wrong, and he sits at the center of the story.

The drama is pitched as a tax-collection action piece with a satisfying payoff. The lead does not back down from major power, the subject matter is grounded in real-world concerns, and the cases turn in ways viewers will not see coming.

Lee has built a steady résumé across film and television. His credits include the dramas "The Escape of the Seven," "Revenge of Others" sequel "The Seven Resurrection" (Chirinui Buhwal), "The Forbidden Marriage" (Bulgeun Dansim) and "Bulgasal: Immortal Souls," as well as the film "Lucky." Across those projects, he has shown a clean, controlled style of acting that holds a scene.

Short-form drama has become one of the fastest-growing formats in the Korean content market, with platforms like Lezhin Snack betting that mobile-first viewers will keep coming back for tightly built, episode-by-episode stories. A genre piece built around a tax officer with a supernatural edge fits squarely into that strategy. For Lee, it is a chance to anchor a series in a format that is still defining its biggest stars.