«Descendants of the Sun» is a 2016 K-Drama, that soon became one of the most succesful South Korean Series worldwide.
- Descendants of the Sun is a 2016 South Korean TV series.
- Song Joong-ki, Song Hye-kyo, Jin Goo, and Kim Ji-won star in the series.
- It aired on KBS2 from February 24 to April 14, 2016 for 16 episodes.
- KBS then aired three additional special episodes from April 20 to April 22, 2016 containing highlights and the best scenes from the series, the drama’s production process, behind-the-scenes footage, commentaries from cast members and the final epilogue.
- The series was a major hit in South Korea where it drew a peak audience share of 38.8%.
- It received several awards, such as winning the Grand Prize in television at the 52nd Baeksang Arts Awards.
- It was named the Most Popular Show of the year by Korea Broadcasting Advertising Corporation.
- The show was broadcast across Asia where it was hugely popular.
- It has been credited with a rise in tourism to Korea.
- Local adaptations has aired in the Philippines, and Vietnam, and an adaptation is planned in China.
- The actors in the show also received international recognition.
- Descendants of the Sun was fully pre-produced before airing which is a departure from the live-shoot production format that characterizes most Korean dramas.
- The drama is Song Joong-ki’s comeback project after serving his two years of mandatory military service.
- The production cost 13 billion won (approximately $10.8 million) to produce.
- Song Joong-ki and Song Hye-Kyo, who both played the lead roles, married on October 31, 2017. Soon they got divorced.
- Actor Song Joong-ki got injured while filming. Had to take 2 weeks of break before returning.
- Yoo Ah-in makes a cameo appearance in one of the episodes. Song Joong-ki and Yoo Ah-in previously starred together in Sungkyunkwan Scandal (2010).
- According to local reports by Newsis, lead actor Song Joong-ki was not the first choice of writers and directors for the hit South Korean series, as he was deemed too slender for the role of a heroic special forces officer. Song was later cast as the producers decided to change the character of the role. The 6th June episode of tvN’s The List 2016 revealed the names of four actors who rejected the role before Joong-ki was chosen.
- As per the show, the A-listers who passed the role includes Won Bin, Zo In-sung, Gong Yoo, Hyun Bin and Woo-bin Kim. Reportedly, the actors were skeptical on sporting the army style short hair. It is also said that the artists expressed slight discomfort on portraying a role of a soldier and could not commit with the pre-production format of the show.
- Filming took place in Greece for about a month from September 28, 2015. Main characters played by Song Joong-ki and Song Hye-Kyo meet for the first time in Greece.
- The location which served as the Mowuru Company’s base camp was set at the exhausted Taebaek Hanbo Coal Mine while earthquake scenes were mostly filmed at the Samtan Art Mine.
- Filming also took place at Camp Greaves DMZ Experience Centre, once a US Army base camp during the Korean War. Filming at Haesung Hospital was actually done at the Seoul St Mary’s Hospital.
- Descendants of the Sun was fully pre-produced before airing which is a departure from the live-shoot production format that characterizes most Korean dramas.
- Both Kim Ji-Won (First Lt. Yoon Myeong Joo) and Jun Soo Jin (Ri Ye Hwa) were in «The Heirs» (2013).
- Through the protagonists interaction with local civilians, Urk is revealed to the viewer as a unique country. The language that is spoken by the Urk people appears to be a mixture of Greek and Arabic. However, during Korean medical team’s solar power project opening, a sign is shown featuring Greek, Arabic and Russian alongside Korean languages separately implying that Urk is somewhere in the Middle East or part of the Arab World.
- Urk’s real life counterpart would be Malta where the Maltese language heavily influenced by Tunisian Arabic and Italian is spoken. Another inspiration could be Cyprus split between Greeks and Turks where a long stalemate has lasted between Northern Cypruss and Cyprus proper since the 1970s conflict between Greece and Turkey. However, Urk’s language and society is closer to Malta than Cyprus.
- Urk, the fictional country where the story takes place is said to be a Mediterranean country although its never specified which part of the Mediterranean region.
- Originally, Descendants of the Sun was planned on SBS in 2014, but when Yukryong chose Narsha in the process of choosing between Narsha and this drama, the SBS program failed and eventually moved on to KBS.
- It is the first drama to be produced by N.E.W., who was producing, investing, and distributing movies, by establishing its own drama production company Studio & New.
- Many of the foreign actors, such as refugee children and gangsters, were cast in Greece.
