Actor Cho Jin-woong (birth name Cho Won-jun) said he would retire from the entertainment industry after controversy over a past juvenile record, sending ripples through the stock market. As uncertainty has grown over whether the drama "Second Signal (Signal 2)," slated to air next year and featuring Cho Jin-woong, will be broadcast, related stocks are weakening.
On the 8th in the stock market, CJ ENM is down 2.5% intraday. TV network tvN under CJ ENM had been preparing to air Signal 2 as a special 20th anniversary project this year. But with Cho Jin-woong saying he will retire from the entertainment industry, uncertainty over whether it will air has grown.
Studio Dragon, a CJ ENM affiliate that planned Signal 2, is also down 1%. Sell orders are coming through foreign securities houses such as Morgan Stanley and JPMorgan. Contentree JoongAng, which has production company BA Entertainment behind Signal 2 as an affiliate, is down around 2%, and ASTORY, a production and distribution company for Signal, is also weak.
As the second series of the 2016 drama "Signal," it drew attention for keeping the original cast of Kim Hye-soo, Lee Je-hoon, and Cho Jin-woong based on a script by Kim Eun-hee. The production budget alone is said to be in the tens of billions of won.
Debuting with the 2004 film "Once Upon a Time in High School," Cho Jin-woong mainly played independence activists or righteous detectives and built recognition. Recently, after controversy over a past juvenile record, Cho acknowledged some wrongdoing and said he would retire. Broadcasters have begun "erasing Cho Jin-woong," including removing him from public view in works he appeared in.