Debuting in 1997, Won Bin has maintained his top status despite this one controversy during his 12 years of hiatus 

Won Bin was still voted second in the list of the most anticipated actors.

Won Bin is a handsome actor in Korea. Born in 1977, turning 46 this year, he entered the entertainment industry through KBS 2TV’s drama “Propose” in 1997. At that time, Won Bin joined the list of “pretty boy actors,” showing off his superior visuals and unrivaled aura that the Korean audiences had never seen before, even though he had few lines in the production.

Since then, Won Bin has been walking on the so-called “flower road.” Won Bin gradually accumulated his own filmography by appearing in the dramas “Kwangki,” “Autumn In My Heart,” and “Friends,” and also earned the title of “an actor whose movies we can trust” through the films “Guns and Talks,” “Taegeukgi,” “My Brother,” “Mother,” and “The Man From Nowhere.”

After that, Won Bin went on a hiatus for two to three years, including his military service. Won Bin continued his work later, including participating in the Cannes Film Festival as well as advertising, and became the “actor of 10 million” (an actor who attracted 10 million audiences to the theatre).

But this is all. Won Bin has not released any news of his next film, even though 12 years have passed since the movie “The Man from Nowhere,” which was released in August 2010. In the meantime, Won Bin had a small wedding in May 2015 near his hometown of Jeongseon, Gangwon-do with fellow actress Lee Na-young, and gave birth to a son in December of the same year, seven months after marriage.

Although he has become the head of a family, there is still no news of Won Bin‘s next work. On the other hand, unlike Wonbin, his wife, Lee Na-young, has been working hard. Following the movie “Beautiful Days” released in November 2018, Lee Na-young welcomed viewers through tvN’s “Romance is A Bonus Book,” which ended in March 2019.

Therefore, the viewers’ question about Won Bin’s next work naturally went to Lee Na-young. In an interview to promote the movie “Beautiful Days,” Lee Na-young replied, “I don’t know why he doesn’t do that (come back),” when asked about her husband’s return. At the time, Lee Na-young said, “Won Bin seems to want to communicate with everyone through his work,” adding, “He wants to tell the audience stories about humanism, so he’s looking for a script of that genre, but I don’t think there are many.”

Since then, when Lee Na-young was asked about what encouraging message Won Bin had given her at the press conference of tvN’s “Romance is A Bonus Book” in January 2019, she replied, “He told me to work hard,” drawing attention with her shy smile.

Some netizens even speculated that “Won Bin may have retired from the entertainment industry,” as the news of Won Bin‘s next work was not delivered. It is also a reasonable reason to some extent because he has not worked for more than 10 years.

Meanwhile, an issue that wedged Won Bin‘s “retirement rumor” broke out. In Won Bin’s pictorial press release distributed in September 2019, the media was told to “Please refrain from mentioning the word ‘actor’.” In particular, there was a request in the materials of the event, saying, “We’re really sorry to ask you to do one thing carefully, which is to avoid mentioning ‘actor’ in the articles.”

In this regard, the public relations agency said, “Won Bin’s agency asked for it. We don’t know the detailed reason,” but Won Bin’s side said, “We’ve never asked them to avoid mentioning the word ‘actor’. We’ve never talked about that on the phone,” denying the blame. The request was at the discretion of the brand. From the brand’s point of view, it was because “model” rather than “actor” had a better brand promotion effect, explaining the controversy over the request to avoid mentioning Won Bin being an “actor.” When asked about Won Bin’s future work activities, his company still saved their words, saying, “He’s looking for a production.”

About two years and five months have passed since the incident. Won Bin is still sticking to his mysticism, but fans’ longing for Won Bin remains unchanged. This is because the actor came in second in a recent vote released by a community portal site, “Which star do you want to see his activities again?”

Won Bin, whose latest film is “The Man From Nowhere” released 12 years ago, as Lee Na-young said, might be waiting for the moment to come back to communicate with the public through his work.

People are focusing their attention on what kind of next work Won Bin, who will hopefully spread his wings after a long wait soon, will appear in the future.