Global Rollout Begins as Ahn Hyo-seop and Lee Min-ho Share Their Passion and Challenges Behind the Fantasy Epic

The upcoming film Omniscient Reader: The Prophecy has been pre-sold to 113 countries including the United States, Japan, Canada, and Germany, according to distributor Lotte Entertainment on Wednesday.

Omniscient Reader: The Prophecy is set to begin its overseas rollout on the 23rd in Taiwan, followed by releases in Indonesia on the 30th, and in Hong Kong, Thailand, Malaysia, and Australia on the 31st.

Based on the popular webtoon of the same name, Omniscient Reader: The Prophecy is a fantasy action film that depicts what happens when the world of a novel serialized for over 10 years becomes reality.

The film is directed by Kim Byung-woo, known for The Terror Live (2013) and Take Point (PMC: The Bunker, 2018). The cast includes Ahn Hyo-seop, Lee Min-ho, Chae Soo-bin, Shin Seung-ho, Nana, and BLACKPINK’s Jisoo.

The film will be released in Korea on July 23.
 

Actor Interview: Ahn Hyo-seop on His First Film Role: “I Kept Asking the Director If I Looked Too Cool”

Ahn Hyo-seop, making his feature film debut as Kim Dok-ja, shared how he worked to portray an ordinary man caught in an extraordinary situation. “Everyone has the desire to look cool, right? But for this shoot, I tried my best to suppress that,” he said. “I kept asking the director, ‘Was I too cool in that take?’”

He explained that he worked hard to let go of “Ahn Hyo-seop the tall, good-looking person,” and fully embody a character who’s constantly pushed around and has hit rock bottom in terms of self-esteem.

Based on the hit web novel and webtoon, Omniscient Reader: The Prophecy follows Kim Dok-ja, a nobody in the real world who becomes the only person familiar with a fictional world that suddenly becomes reality. 

“I thought Dok-ja should be someone everyone could relate to,” Ahn said. “But as the character grows, I made sure to gradually shift his posture and expression, especially his eyes, to reflect that evolution.”

Meeting the protagonist of the novel in real life—Yoo Joong-hyuk, played by Lee Min-ho—was a key emotional moment for Dok-ja in the story. Ahn said Lee’s presence helped him act out those feelings convincingly.

“Lee Min-ho was a celebrity to me when I was younger,” he shared. “I filmed with the same kind of awe you'd feel when meeting your idol in real life.”

Although the film boasts visually striking action sequences, filming wasn’t easy.

“There were times I wanted to push through, but my legs just wouldn’t cooperate,” Ahn said. “Every actor got injured at least once during production.”

This marks Ahn Hyo-seop’s feature film debut, and with its mega-hit source material and a production budget of around 30 billion KRW, the pressure is understandably high. Yet Ahn remained grounded:

“As an actor, I gave my all on set, and now everything else feels out of my hands.”

“All I can say is that I truly loved the character Kim Dok-ja. He means so much to me, and I just hope audiences will feel the same.”

Ahn also spoke about his experience voicing Jinwoo in Netflix’s U.S. animated film K-Pop Demon Hunters, part of the global “Saja Boys” idol group featured in the story.

“I’d always wanted to act in English, and at first I approached the role with a light heart,” he said. “The script was fun—not just because of the K-pop angle, but as a story overall.”

He added that he participated with hopes of promoting Korean culture more widely.

“I hope Omniscient Reader: The Prophecy can ride that same wave of good energy,” Ahn said.

“We tried our best to make sure audiences enjoy the experience, even in just two short hours. I hope viewers walk away thinking, ‘That was worth my time.’”

Actor Interview: Lee Min-ho on His Return to Cinema: “Screen time doesn’t matter—what moves me is the story”

In the Omniscient Reader: The Prophecy, the character Yoo Joong-hyuk is the protagonist of a serialized novel titled Three Ways to Survive the Apocalypse. He’s depicted as a powerful figure who possesses a resurrection ability known as “regression” and is described as having a striking appearance.

Lee Min-ho, who plays Yoo Joong-hyuk, shook his head at the suggestion that he and the character share similar traits.

“You might not believe me, but I’ve never once thought about trying to look cool while working on a project.”

During an interview in Seoul, Lee said, “It’s the elements of the story that make the character look cool. I think the more lacking or broken a character is, the cooler they can seem. Most of the characters I’ve played are filled with emotional voids.”

Lee said he wanted to show the desperation of Yoo Joong-hyuk in the film. The character has survived alone for a long time and is deeply cynical about humanity.

“I told the director, ‘He needs to feel more desperate. I hope the desperation comes through.’ I believed that the more desperate Yoo Joong-hyuk is, the more persuasive the film would be.”

He added, “I hope the audience can connect with why Yoo Joong-hyuk became that way, and with the emotions and inner turmoil he feels.”

If a sequel is made, Lee hinted that we’ll get to see a cooler side of Yoo Joong-hyuk.

“If I were to give this film a subtitle, it would be something like ‘The Beginning of the Adventure,’” he said. “If the story continues, I think there will be many more moments where Yoo Joong-hyuk will look impressive.”

As he mentioned, this film mainly covers the beginning of the original story and unfolds largely through the perspective of Kim Dok-ja. For that reason, despite his strong presence, Yoo Joong-hyuk doesn’t appear on screen for long.

“I don’t pay much attention to screen time when working,” Lee said. “I care more about the character’s significance and their function in the story. As long as it makes narrative sense, I don’t mind how much screen time I have.”

Omniscient Reader: The Prophecy marks Lee’s return to the big screen for the first time in 10 years since Gangnam 1970 (2015).

“Coming back to film after so long was definitely a burden,” he admitted. “Movies feel like they come with a definite judgment. It feels like I’m waiting for that evaluation to arrive.”

The reason it took so long for him to return to film was because he wanted to work on stories with emotional depth.

“When I go to the theater myself, it’s usually because I want to release emotions or experience something deep. That’s why I looked for stories that offered that, and ended up distancing myself from films in my 20s. But in my 30s, I started wanting to do films again.”

Now in his late 30s, Lee said he feels a stronger sense of responsibility than before. “When I entered my 30s, I felt I needed to fuel myself with a new kind of energy based on a deeper sense of responsibility,” he recalled.

In terms of that energy, he’s recently found great inspiration from fellow actor—Squid Game's star Lee Jung-jae.

“I’ve been spending time with senior actor Lee Jung-jae lately, and watching him fully immerse himself in different things has been really inspiring. It made me think, ‘Ah, you can generate energy by putting everything into what you do.’”

As a longtime Hallyu (Korean Wave) star, Lee also shared his thoughts on the global boom of Korean content.

“When we used to shoot over ten years ago, we’d barely sleep—maybe one or two hours a night all week—and work off last-minute scripts. The senior actors had it even rougher. I think that level of dedication over 10 or 20 years is what led to the strong recognition we have now. To keep this momentum going, everyone on set has to stay just as committed and intense as before.”

Lee said he enjoys taking on new challenges and wants to continue working on many more projects.

“I’m not afraid of taking on things that most people might hesitate to try. I like throwing myself into new environments,” he said. “Lately, I’ve been more involved from the planning stage of projects, because I prefer to approach them with more depth. I want to keep creating a lot of work.”

By Park Won-hee & Jeong Rae-won