Inside Men Prequel Announces Four Lead Actors

Hive Media Corp announced on August 20 that Jung-woo Ha, Bo-hyun Ahn, Hae-joon Park, and Sung-il Jung will lead its Inside Men prequel. The film’s working title is Inside Men: The Birth of Villains.

Set in the late 1980s, the film traces the beginnings of the power cartel depicted in the 2015 South Korean movie. It explores how media, capital, and politics became connected.

The announced cast and roles are:

• Jung-woo Ha plays Kang-hee Lee, a newspaper reporter sidelined after investigating a major corporate corruption story. Yoon-sik Baek portrayed him in Inside Men.
• Bo-hyun Ahn plays Sang-goo Ahn, an entertainment agency executive who climbs from the bottom in pursuit of success and revenge. Byung-hun Lee originated the role.
• Hae-joon Park plays Pil-woo Jang, an ambitious first-term lawmaker determined to reach the center of political power.
• Sung-il Jung plays Hyun-soo Oh, Mirae Group’s chairman, who aims to secure the top position in the emerging cartel.

Staff previously described the project as a film trilogy. However, the cast announcement made no mention of that plan, leaving the number of films uncertain.

Inside Men previously became a hit film in 2015, adapting Tae-ho Yoon’s unfinished webtoon under the same title.

The story centers on a presidential candidate, a corporate tycoon, and a media strategist linked through extensive political corruption and secret deals. A small-time enforcer who worked for them takes the blame when a hidden slush fund operation comes to light, leaving him broken and determined to retaliate.

An ambitious prosecutor without powerful connections, meanwhile, receives a rare opportunity to bring down the country’s largest corruption ring. His investigation is then derailed.

The enforcer and prosecutor cross paths, each pursuing his own ambitions and sense of justice. Their collision sparks a dangerous struggle for power beneath politics, money, and the media.

Yoon is also known for Yahoo and Misaeng: Incomplete Life. His Inside Men webtoon currently has no official English release, but these other works are available in English:

• The Hooligans
• Eorin
• Moss
• Operation Chromite
• Misaeng: Incomplete Life