5 Must-Watch Historical Korean Dramas Inspired by Webtoons

♦ The History of Webtoons ♦

The term “webtoon” (웹툰) combines web + cartoon. Today, webtoons are a major force in digital entertainment. How did they get here? It all started in the early 2000s, when Korean portals like Daum (2003) and Naver (2004) started hosting vertically scrolling comics optimized for computers and, later, smartphones. They grew in popularity very quickly for a number of reasons, beginning with the fact that most webtoons were free to read. Additionally, they have a mobile-friendly design, there are diverse genres and voices, and social media sharing is super easy. Finally, webtoons have enjoyed cross-media success. Popular webtoons actually inspired anime, films, and Korean dramas, and more readers got addicted. By the late 2010s, Naver (with WEBTOON) and Kakao (with Tapas) had gone global, translating top series into English, Japanese, French, etc. Amazing success story, huh?

Many of my favorite Korean dramas were based on webtoons. The 5 webtoon adaptations listed below are perfect for K-drama newbies.

♦ (1) 100 Days My Prince (2018)

Childhood sweethearts are so adorable. A young prince meets a young girl from a noble family. He is so smitten by her that he tells her one day they will get married. It could happen. Or rather, it could have happened if her father had not been brutally murdered. Her entire family should have been murdered. That was the plan. However, the young prince witnessed the brutal bloodshed, not knowing it had been ordered by his own father. His quick action helped the girl he loved and her brother escape. Would he ever see her again? He was already traumatized by what he had witnessed. Soon after, his mother is also murdered, and his heart fills with hatred for everyone—except his loyal childhood friend.

Years later, the prince is forced into a loveless marriage. His wife’s affair leads her father to plot the prince’s death. During the failed assassination, the prince is injured and loses his memory. A poor man finds him and, to save his own daughter from punishment for remaining unmarried, convinces the amnesiac prince that she is his bride. For 100 days, the prince lives as a commoner, falling in love with the woman he unknowingly once promised to marry when they were children. When his memory returns, he must confront those who betrayed him—and decide between his duty as a crown prince and his true love.

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♦ (2) The First Night with the Duke (2025)

“K” is a modern college student obsessed with the web novel “The Obsessive Tyrant”. When she learns it’s been discontinued, she’s furious and messages the author claiming she could write a better story “with her left foot.” Moments later, she slips on an empty bottle—with her left foot—knocks herself out, and wakes up in the Joseon Era. It's already a shock that she's in Joseon, but it's a fictional Joseon. She’s a minor character in her favorite web novel, the book that had been discontinued. What a crazy dream! It's a dream. Right? Surely she hasn't time-traveled into a fictional world?

OK! Wherever she is, since she knows how the story goes, she decides to lie low and let the story unfold. That probably would have worked except that her actions started changing the plot. In a drunken moment (noble ladies don’t drink!), she crosses paths with the cold, obsessive duke, i.e., “The Obsessive Tyrant”. When she wakes up the next morning, she finds herself in bed with him. Oh no! “K” has derailed the entire storyline. The duke is not supposed to fall for her. He falls in love with the heroine, the main female character. But now he’s obsessed with her.

Can she rewrite her accidental rewrite and fix the story? And of course, more importantly, this isn't a dream. How is she going to find a way back to her real life?

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♦ (3) Flower Crew: Joseon Marriage Agency (2019)

The Flower Crew is a group of three (3) young men, elite matchmakers in the Joseon era, renowned for crafting “perfect” marriages. Despite their success in helping others find love, they themselves remain single, each carrying a hidden wound or secret.

There is a humble blacksmith in love with a spirited young woman. They are commoners and they lead a happy common life. The blacksmith wants to marry her and goes to The Flower Crew for their matchmaking service. He's already proposed to her, but he heard that the marriages arranged by the matchmakers are always happy for life. He wants to make sure his bride-to-be will be happy with him for life. But on the day of the wedding, the bridegroom doesn't show up. What happened to him?

The bride knew he would never abandon her. Something awful must have happened to him. It was awful, alright. The blacksmith isn't a commoner. He is a king! His father feared for his life, so he hid him when he was a child. A member of the royal guard raised him like a son. He didn't know his true identity until they kidnapped him and dragged him back to the palace on his wedding day. Isn't that awful? Now he can't marry the woman he loves. Or can he?

It gets even more complicated. After all, the blacksmith is in the palace now. Everyone in the palace is always scheming and conniving. Finding someone loyal and trustworthy is almost impossible.

One of the matchmakers is the estranged son of a corrupt palace official, and the official is interfering with both of our lives. As for the bride-to-be, or rather the bride-that-never-was, somebody tried to kill her. One can't have a king in love with a commoner, can one? Also, she finds herself in the middle of a love triangle. On the plus side, at least she knows she wasn't jilted on her wedding day.

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♦ (4) Forbidden Marriage (2022)

During the Joseon Dynasty, royal weddings were national events. When a king or crown prince was to marry, nobles submitted their daughters’ credentials to be considered as royal consorts. While this selection process—lasting two to six months—was underway, all marriages across the kingdom were suspended. But the king broke tradition. Grieving his wife’s suicide, he issued a marriage ban that lasted seven years. Each anniversary of her death, a young woman was mysteriously found hanging in the princess’s quarters, deepening his trauma and resistance to remarriage. The ban left couples across the kingdom in despair.

A clever swindler is imprisoned for her cons. Overhearing the king’s anguish, she decides to con the king. She pretends to channel the spirit of the late crown princess to gain his trust—and her freedom. But she can't fool the king forever. What's going to happen to her when he finds out? She hides a noble past and must live in secret. Even if the king doesn't find out, others who want to kill her.

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♦ (5) Heo's Diner (2025)

A noble man is a compassionate and principled man whose belief that every person—slave, commoner, or kisaeng—has value defies the rigid hierarchy of Joseon society. He dares to challenge the system by urging the king to allow illegitimate noble sons to hold government posts, arguing that the nation is wasting its talent. His honesty earns him exile. Exile is not so bad. He gets to cook, and he's quite the culinary chef.

An inspector visits to check on him, and he finds that the townspeople, even the magistrate, adore him. Instead of suffering, he’s thriving in exile. That's unacceptable. The inspector offers him a chance to return to favor if the gentle nobleman would compromise his beliefs. But he would not be persuaded. The inspector resorts to sending an assassin to destroy him and his influence. The chef is about to be assassinated, and at the fatal moment, he mysteriously vanishes. He finds that he has traveled 400 years into the future and manages to get a job at a small diner owned by a mother and daughter.

The daughter is wary of the strange man, but her mother offers him food and work at their humble diner, and even a place to sleep. A celebrity chef has moved into the neighborhood and set up a high-end restaurant. He plans to run a high-end dessert shop and wants the diner to close down. The small restaurant detracts from the glamour and prestige of his operations. The mother does not want to sell. It's not about the money. The diner has been in her family for generations. One night, the mother goes out to meet someone, and there is an accident. It could have been an accident or an assault. The only witness is the strange chef from Joseon. He's not sure what or who he saw, and the police try to arrest him.

With the mother in the hospital, the daughter must run the diner alone. Even though the chef helps her, the hospital bills are more than she can afford. Now that the mother is no longer there to refuse, the celebrity chef tries to persuade the daughter to sell the diner. The chef suspects that the mother's "accident" was not an accident. But can he prove it?

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HITS, SEOUL. “10 Hottest Webtoon-Based Kdramas Dropping in 2025!” YouTube, Video, 5 Feb. 2025, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WSQbBj2v4dI.

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Did you enjoy this list? Would you like more recommendations?

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