36 years since his debut… Son Hyun-joo’s 2026 drama career is packed with ‘Wonderfuls’, ‘New Employee Chairman Kang’, and ‘Doctor X’.
First, in the new Netflix original series ‘Wonderfuls’ releasing today (15th), he plays a villain boss who threatens peace. Then, in the new JTBC Saturday-Sunday drama ‘New Employee Chairman Kang’ premiering on the 30th, he transforms into a conglomerate chairman with incredible business skills.
Son Hyun-joo’s streak continues into the second half of the year. In October, he will meet viewers in the new SBS Friday-Saturday drama ‘Doctor X: Era of the White Mafia’, where he plays a hospital director striving to rebuild a university hospital facing a crisis due to corruption.
Fans are eagerly waiting to see what this 36-year veteran actor will bring to the screen this year.
Son Hyun-joo kicks off his 2026 activities with ‘Wonderfuls’, marking his first foray into the superpower genre and his first Netflix original series.
The Netflix original series ‘Wonderfuls’ (Written by Heo Da-jung, Directed by Yoo In-sik) is a superpower comic action adventure drama. Set in 1999 during the height of doomsday theories, it follows a group of clumsy locals who unexpectedly gain superpowers and fight against villains threatening the peace of Haeseong City.
In the series, Son Hyun-joo plays the main villain, Ha Won-do. As the head of the superpower research experiment ‘Wunderkinder Project’, he creates danger, opposing the four superpower heroes trying to save Haeseong City: Eun Chae-ni (Park Eun-bin), Lee Un-jeong (Cha Eun-woo), Son Kyung-hoon (Choi Dae-hoon), and Kang Robin (Lim Sung-jae).
He is not alone! He is joined by followers who gained powers through the ‘Wunderkinder Project’: Seok Ju-ran (Jung Yi-seo) with brainwashing abilities, Seok Ho-ran (Choi Yoon-ji) with hallucination abilities, and Kim Pal-ho (Bae Na-ra) with gravity abilities. Curiosity is growing over the villainous chemistry these four will create.
‘Wonderfuls’ consists of 8 episodes and will be fully released on Netflix on May 15 at 5 PM.
With ‘New Employee Chairman Kang’, Son Hyun-joo returns to JTBC for the first time in four years since the 2022 drama ‘The Good Detective 2’.
The new JTBC Saturday-Sunday drama ‘New Employee Chairman Kang’ (Written by Hyun Ji-min, Directed by Ko Hye-jin) is based on a web novel of the same name. It tells the story of Kang Yong-ho (Son Hyun-joo), the chairman of the conglomerate Choi Sung Group, who begins an unwanted second life after a collision accident.
Son Hyun-joo plays Kang Yong-ho, a capable businessman who used indomitable will to push Choi Sung Group into the top 10 companies in the business world, protecting the company even amidst the IMF financial crisis and rivalry from half-siblings. He firmly believes that everything flows according to the logic of money.
He will work closely with actor Lee Jun-young in this project. While Son Hyun-joo plays Kang Yong-ho and Lee Jun-young plays soccer player Hwang Jun-hyun, the plot involves Kang Yong-ho’s soul possessing Hwang Jun-hyun’s body. While Lee Jun-young is expected to play a dual role, Son Hyun-joo will portray Kang Yong-ho before the possession.
‘New Employee Chairman Kang’ consists of 12 episodes and premieres on the 30th at 10:40 PM.
Son Hyun-joo returns to SBS dramas after 12 years. ‘Doctor X: Era of the White Mafia’ is his first SBS drama since ‘Three Days’ in 2014.
The new SBS Friday-Saturday drama ‘Doctor X: Era of the White Mafia’ (Written by Pyeon Seong-geun, Directed by Lee Jung-rim, hereafter ‘Doctor X’) is based on the Japanese drama ‘Doctor X’ series. It follows Doctor X, Gye Su-jeong (Kim Ji-won), who proves what a doctor truly is through sheer skill as she operates on medical power steeped in corruption.
Son Hyun-joo plays Bu Seung-kwon, the director of the Guseo University Hospital branch. He is a character who struggles to revive a university hospital on the brink of collapse, facing various incidents after the arrival of the genius surgeon Gye Su-jeong.
Son Hyun-joo will share the screen not only with Kim Ji-won as Gye Su-jeong but also with Lee Jung-eun as Jang Hee-sook, the head of a doctor placement agency, and Kim Woo-seok as Park Tae-kyung, a silver spoon intern at Guseo University Hospital. Fans are curious about the stories this cast will bring to the medical noir genre of ‘Doctor X’.
‘Doctor X’ is scheduled to air in October.
