If you like your historical K-dramas filled with beautiful costumes, dangerous seduction and people making decisions that are almost certainly going to ruin several lives, Netflix has a new series for you.

The Scandal premiered globally on 18 September 2026, starring Son Ye-jin, Ji Chang-wook and NANA in a Joseon-era story built around desire, manipulation and a dangerous wager.

This is also a story with quite a history behind it.

A Korean Dangerous Liaisons returns

Netflix describes The Scandal as a new reimagining of Pierre Choderlos de Laclos’ 1782 novel Dangerous Liaisons.

The series also follows the Korean adaptation lineage established by the acclaimed 2003 film Untold Scandal.

Son Ye-jin plays Lady Cho, an intelligent noblewoman constrained by the rules imposed on women of her social position.

Ji Chang-wook plays Cho Won, a notorious Joseon playboy.

NANA portrays Hui-yeon, a widowed noblewoman who becomes entangled in their increasingly dangerous game.

It begins with a wager

At the heart of the story is a provocative game between Lady Cho and Cho Won.

Their manipulation of other people’s desires gradually draws Hui-yeon and others into a web of attraction, power and deception.

A preview released around the premiere shows Lady Cho making an extraordinary request of Cho Won involving another woman intended to become a concubine, while also hinting at unresolved feelings between the two schemers themselves.

This is not a gentle historical courtship drama.

Netflix itself describes the series as a story about forbidden desire in a society where reputation and social expectations carry enormous consequences.

A formidable central cast

Son Ye-jin needs little introduction to K-drama audiences after Crash Landing on You and a long film career.

Ji Chang-wook brings his own enormous drama following, while NANA takes on the woman caught in the centre of their game.

Director Jung Ji-woo, whose film work includes Happy End and Tune in for Love, directs the series.

Why this adaptation is worth watching

Dangerous Liaisons has survived for more than two centuries because its central themes travel extraordinarily well.

Desire becomes leverage.

Reputation becomes a weapon.

People who believe they are manipulating everyone else discover that emotions are considerably harder to control.

Placing that story within the rigid social hierarchy of Joseon Korea creates a particularly potent version of the premise.

The Scandal is streaming on Netflix now.

And based on its setup, the title seems less like a description than a promise.