Both Park Eun-bin and Nam Goong-min already mentioned it… Isn’t it weird that “Hot Stove League” doesn’t make Season 2 at this point?

Fans of “Hot Stove League” suddenly raised high expectations for the production of Season 2.

In the scene of SBS’s Friday-Saturday drama “One Dollar Lawyer” where Chun Ji-hoon (Nam Goong-min), who visited law firm Baek and raised doubts that it had something to do with lawyer Baek Ma-ri (Kim Ji-eun) as soon as he saw the name ‘Baek’ of the law firm, Baek Ma-ri replied, “Is there only one or two Baeks? Baek Jong-won. Baek Ji-young. Baek Yoon-sik… Baek Seung-soo”. In fact, the name Baek Seung-soo, which appeared out of a sudden in the drama, does not sound unusual to the viewers at all. It actually refers to the main character Baek Seung-soo (Nam Goong-min) in “Hot Stove League”. Nam Goong-min played this role but he answered as if he didn’t know the name, “Oh, there’s Baek Seung-soo. Did you watch Hot Stove League? That was really good. I don’t know why they aren’t making season 2”.

If you were a fan of “Hot Stove League” or if you became a fan of Nam Goong-min and Park Eun-bin because of that drama, you would be pleased to hear such a line that the production team put in to arouse your excitement. At this point, isn’t it strange that the production team of “Hot Stove League” doesn’t have any plan for Season 2?

Coincidently, the recent roles of Park Eun-bin and Nam Goong-min are all lawyers. They are both “extraordinary” lawyers in their own world and above all, they are all figures who stand on the side of the weak and speak on behalf of normal people. But what the two actors have in common is the infinite expansion of their own acting spectrum they are performing. 

Nam Goong-min is an actor who has broadened the scope of his acting performance to the fullest by playing various characters in dramas of different genres, such as the comic character Chief Kim in “Good Manager”, Na Yi-jae in “Doctor Prisoner”, Do Jung-woo in “Awaken”, noir character Han Ji-hyuk in “The Veil”, and even a smart character in “Hot Stove League”.

Meanwhile, Park Eun-bin has also pulled off many hard roles, such as the boyish young woman Song Ji-won in “Hello, My Twenties!”, the confident office woman Lee Se-young in “Hot Stove League”, the introverted and emotional Chae Song-ah in “Do You Like Brahms?”, Lee Hwi – a woman who dressed as a man in the historical drama “The King’s Affection”, and a lawyer with an autism spectrum disorder in “Extraordinary Attorney Woo”. 

Therefore, it is not exaggerated to say that the two’s acting growth is in line with the development of K-dramas. 

Of course, it is not easy to consider making “Hot Stove League Season 2” because Season 1 has already covered so many materials. Although it is the first script written by Lee Shin-hwa, the screenwriter is known to have prepared this work for quite a long time. He is a baseball enthusiast himself, so he covered the world in the drama deeply and filled Season 1 with enough stories. As a result, it will be quite burdensome to make Season 2 as expectations are higher.

However, as fans and the writer himself have talked about the possibility of Season 2 many times, there is still room for us to look forward to “Hot Stove League 2”. In fact, the most important factor here is the actors. The reason why Season 2 becomes difficult for most actors to do compared to Season 1 is that it is not easy for the cast of Season 1 to continue working on Season 2 due to problems with schedules or appearance fees. In this regard, it is more encouraging when Nam Gung-min talked about his expectations for “Hot Stove League 2” using the voice of his other character Chun Ji-hoon in “One Dollar Lawyer”. At least the main character actor Nam Goong-min expressed his favorable feelings toward the work. 

The same goes for Park Eun-bin. In a recent interview with entertainment media, Park Eun-bin also said, “There are still many uncertainties”, publicly expressing her desire to wait for “Hot Stove League 2”. This was also revealed to be the wish of most of the actors who used to appear in the work. Thus, at least the actors’ intentions, which can be the most important factor while considering the production of Season 2, have been confirmed to some extent.

Recently, the system of drama with many seasons has become more familiar to K-drama viewers, so the possibility of success for Season 2 has also increased. With the recent craze of “Extraordinary Attorney Woo” and Park Eun-bin being selected by the American Critics Association to receive Rising Star Award, K-content success is also being globalized. Therefore,  wouldn’t the attempt of making “Hot Stove League 2” be a meaningful challenge for Park Eun-bin and Nam Goong-min to appear together in one place again at this time? “Hot Stove League 2” has seen a surge in expectations due to the appearance of the two actors as “extraordinary” lawyers recently. At this point, it has become a strange situation that Season 2 is not being produced.

Source: Daum