CJ ENM Officially Responds To Criticism For Allegedly Associating A Specific Person In “Lovely Runner”

Previously, the new K-Drama Lovely Runner was accused of allegedly referencing the life of SHINee’s Jonghyun. With this, many fans called for a boycott as they felt it was disrespectful and were using the idol for entertainment.

However, most recently, some netizens felt that the criticism didn’t have solid reasoning and stated differing opinions on the drama. With this, the production company CJ ENM officially responded to the controversy.

Hello, this is the CJ ENM Viewer Counsel Team. First, we would like to thank you for your interest in our show, ‘Lovely Runner.’ This is the response to the inquiry received.

The male lead’s debut year in the drama is 2009. It is based on the original webtoon and is not a drama made with a specific character or situation in mind.

However, during the production process, we felt that the original work setting of six years before was not a big enough gap to depict the young days of the main characters. So, we decided to go back 15 years before to 2008, to show a contrast between the times.

Additionally, we inform you that the premiere date was determined by the drama block programming order and was not an intentional setting, as that is not realistically possible.

We hope this has answered your question, and hope that you take care of your health as the weather is up and down these days.

Netizens were baffled that this became a hot issue, with the company even issuing a response.

• “I watched the first episode yesterday and I didn’t think of a certain person while watching it. The fans are too much.”
• “Why are they bringing their idol into something like this.”
• “Why are they bringing up someone who has passed and making news articles like this.”
• “This is so disrespectful to Jonyhun. They need to stop posting things like this.”
• “I watched the show and I see no connection.”
• “Why are the fans like this…are they even fans at this point.

They hope that this will clear up any misunderstanding regarding the setting and storyline of the drama.