"The Remarried Empress" Unveils Love-Square Stills Ahead of Disney+ Launch

Disney+ is heading into November with one of its most ambitious Korean originals of the year. "The Remarried Empress" premieres Nov. 4, and newly released stills point to a royal love square set to unravel over the course of the series.

The fantasy drama stars Shin Min-a as Navier, empress of the Eastern Empire, and Ju Ji-hoon as her husband, Emperor Sovieshu. The story takes a turns when Sovieshu falls for Rashta, a runaway slave played by Lee Se-young, and asks Navier for a divorce. Navier accepts, but only on one condition: that her remarriage to Prince Heinrey of the Western Kingdom, played by Lee Jong-suk, be approved.

The first batch of romance stills lays out how that unraveling begins. Navier and Sovieshu appear in an early image holding each other closely, a picture of a long, settled marriage. That image starts to shift once Heinrey arrives in the Eastern Empire as part of a New Year envoy.

In another still, Heinrey greets Navier for the first time by taking her hand and kissing it. The court watches closely. Navier looks back at him.

A new figure enters Sovieshu's life at the same time. After rescuing Rashta from trouble on a hunting ground, the emperor becomes drawn to her directness. Once a runaway slave, Rashta suddenly finds herself inside the palace and in the emperor's sight.

The shift becomes hardest to miss at a ball. In front of the court, Sovieshu takes Rashta's hand instead of his empress's. In the same moment, Heinrey walks over to Navier, who has been left standing alone, and offers his.

That is the setup the show is built on. Two outsiders step toward the emperor and empress from opposite directions, and the marriage at the center of the empire begins to crack. How those four relationships move toward divorce and remarriage is the story the series is promising to tell.

"The Remarried Empress" premieres Nov. 4 on Disney+.