Park Sung-hoon lost the 'Tyrant's Chef' lead over a deleted Story post

Park Sung-hoon was one of Korean television's busiest leading men — the villain of 'The Glory', and fresh from a role in 'Squid Game' season two, which had premiered on Netflix that same week. Studio Dragon had cast him as the male lead beside Girls' Generation's Yoona in its next tvN drama, 'The Tyrant's Chef'. On December 30, 2024, an explicit parody image from a Japanese adult series appeared on his Instagram Story and vanished moments later — posted, his agency would say, during a national mourning period.

His agency, BH Entertainment, explained the post the next day: his inbox had flooded with direct messages, he mistapped while trying to forward the image to his manager, and he deleted it at once, sorry for 'such a mistake during a nationwide period of mourning'. On January 8 he apologised in tears at a press event for 'Squid Game' season two, saying the drama was 'a work made through the hard work of so many people' and that he was sorry for dragging it down. Online, calls were already mounting for him to leave his next drama.

On January 11, twelve days after the post, Studio Dragon confirmed he was out: 'after much discussion, the production team and actor Park Sung-hoon's side have decided that it will be difficult to work together on this project'. The recast jolted the whole schedule — the script reading was postponed, and the replacement, Lee Chae-min, began filming a month after the exit, about three weeks behind his co-star.