Park Eun Bin's 'Spooky in Love' Haunts tvN From July 18

What Happened

South Korea’s summer drama calendar just gained one of its most anticipated titles. The cable network tvN has confirmed that Spooky in Love, a supernatural romance headlined by Park Eun-bin, will premiere on July 18, 2026, airing on tvN and streaming simultaneously on Netflix for viewers around the world. The reveal, paired with a first teaser, ended months of speculation about when the actress’s next leading role would arrive.

The series casts Park as Cheon Yeo-ri, a chaebol heiress and hotel chief executive who guards a secret: she can see the dead. Every night she is visited by the restless spirits of people who died unjustly, a gift that leaves her drained and isolated. Opposite her is Ma Gang-uk, played by Yang Se-jong, an ace prosecutor devoted to unsolved murder cases whose single greatest fear happens to be ghosts. When the two are forced to work together, the clash of her visions and his skepticism becomes both a crime-solving engine and a slow-burning romance.

Rounding out the central trio is Ong Seong-wu as Kang Min-hwan, a rival hotel executive who complicates Yeo-ri’s professional and personal life. Directed by Lee Min-soo and written by Choi Jung-mi, the show is a series-length adaptation of the 2011 hit film Spellbound, reimagining that movie’s ghost-seeing premise across a full twelve-episode arc.

tvN has slotted the drama as a weekend title, with new 70-minute episodes landing on Saturdays and Sundays and the finale set for August 30, 2026. The same-day Netflix release means international audiences will not have to wait for delayed uploads — a distribution choice that has become routine for the network’s biggest swings.

Why It Matters

For Park Eun-bin, Spooky in Love is the highest-profile test of her drawing power since Extraordinary Attorney Woo turned her into a global name. Choosing a genre hybrid — equal parts horror, comedy and melodrama — signals an actress comfortable moving away from the earnest roles that made her famous toward something riskier and more tonally slippery.

The simulcast arrangement is just as telling. Korean broadcasters increasingly treat a same-day Netflix release not as an afterthought but as a core part of a show’s launch, betting that global word of mouth will feed back into domestic ratings rather than cannibalize them. A weekend supernatural romance with a marquee lead is exactly the kind of title built to travel.

It also lands in a crowded July. The month’s Korean slate is unusually dense, with fantasy and horror-tinged dramas competing for the same audience. Spooky in Love arrives with the advantage of a recognizable source film and a lead whose name alone guarantees a baseline of curiosity.

Reaction

The first teaser drew an immediate wave of interest online, with fans zeroing in on the chemistry between Park and Yang Se-jong as they bicker their way through a haunted investigation. Early clips leaned into the show’s comedic streak, reassuring viewers that the horror elements would be balanced by lightness rather than dread.

Ong Seong-wu’s casting added a second layer of anticipation, drawing in audiences who have followed him since his idol days. Commentary across social platforms framed the trio as a strong ensemble, and the Spellbound connection prompted a fresh round of appreciation for the original film among viewers too young to have caught it in theaters.

Not every reaction was uncritical — some longtime drama watchers wondered whether a beloved film needed a series-length expansion at all — but the prevailing tone was one of curiosity about how the story would stretch across twelve episodes.

What’s Next

From July 18, the rhythm is straightforward: two episodes a weekend, week after week, until the August 30 finale. That cadence gives the romance room to build while doling out the procedural cases that structure each installment.

Attention will turn quickly to the first ratings numbers and to how the Netflix release performs on the platform’s weekly charts. A strong international showing could position Spooky in Love as one of the summer’s breakout Korean titles, and would further cement Park Eun-bin’s status as a lead who can carry a global launch.

Beyond the numbers, the open question is tonal: whether the series can sustain its blend of scares, laughs and romance over a long run without letting one mode overwhelm the others.

Closing Thoughts

Supernatural romance is one of Korean television’s most durable formats, and Spooky in Love is a reminder of why. The premise — a lonely woman burdened by what she can see, a skeptic forced to believe — turns a ghost story into a study of loneliness and connection, which is where these dramas tend to find their emotional footing.

Whether or not it becomes a defining hit, the show captures a particular moment in the industry: recognizable stars, a proven premise, and a distribution model built for the whole world to watch at once. For Park Eun-bin, it is another step in a career defined by unexpected choices, and for summer viewers, it is a weekend appointment worth marking.

한글 요약

박은빈 주연의 tvN 새 드라마 ‘스푸키 인 러브(Spooky in Love)’가 2026년 7월 18일 첫 방송을 확정했다. tvN 방영과 동시에 넷플릭스로 전 세계에 공개되며, 2011년 영화 ‘오싹한 연애’를 시리즈로 각색한 작품이다. 박은빈은 귀신을 보는 재벌가 호텔 대표 천여리 역을, 양세종은 귀신을 가장 무서워하는 검사 마강욱 역을 맡았다.

옹성우가 라이벌 호텔 임원 강민환으로 합류해 삼각 구도를 완성한다. 총 12부작으로 매주 토·일요일 70분 분량으로 방송되며, 8월 30일 종영 예정이다. 공포·코미디·멜로를 결합한 장르물로, ‘이상한 변호사 우영우’ 이후 박은빈의 흥행력을 다시 시험하는 무대라는 평가가 나온다.

공개된 첫 티저는 박은빈과 양세종의 티키타카 케미로 온라인에서 큰 관심을 모았다. 방영 이후 국내 시청률과 넷플릭스 글로벌 차트 성적이 초반 관전 포인트가 될 전망이다. (참고: Netflix, Soompi, Wikipedia)