How the K-Drama Adaptation Marry My Husband Compares to the Webtoon It's Based On (2024)

The year has barely started, and a certain K-drama is already skyrocketing in popularity and viewership. Said K-drama is trending as the #2 show on Prime Video. It has already surpassed another K-drama show, My Demon, in the "buzzworthy drama ranking," according to the Hindustan Times. What is this drama, you're wondering? The show is called Marry My Husband, a story of love and revenge. The idea sounds a bit cliché, but Marry My Husband is cliché done right with phenomenal casting and intriguing characters.

What makes this K-drama stand out from others? It was originally a fantasy, slow-burn romance webcomic on Webtoon written by Sung Sojack and produced by Studio Lico. It started back in 2021 and officially ended in November 2023. It gained a substantial number of readers over the years for the story, characters, art, and overall drama. Now that there's a live-action K-drama on the web series, the show was bound to gain some significant viewer numbers. As new episodes come out, the show continues to climb Prime Video's trending chars. Fans are clearly passionate about the original Webtoon, but how much of the webcomic is actually presented in the K-drama?

What Is Marry My Husband About?

So, what exactly is the premise of Marry My Husband? And how did it get so popular so quickly? Well, that all has to do with the original popular Webtoon comic of the same name. Fans of the comic adore it for being "one of the most complete and satisfying stories," as per this highly-upvoted Reddit post.

Marry My Husband tells the story of Kang Ji-won, a woman in her thirties who is dying of cancer. She's murdered by her husband, Park Min-hwan when she discovers his affair with her best friend, Jung Soo-min. Like other time travel K-dramas, Kang returns to 2013, ten years before their death. She is determined to change her fate, especially after seeing just how manipulative Soo-min truly is and how badly Park has treated her. Kang decides the perfect way to get revenge: setting Soo-min up with Park so they can get together, and Soo-min marries Park in Kang's place.

Throughout this revenge plot, Kang gets closer to her boss, Yoo Ji-hyuk. Ji-hyuk actually has an unrequited love for Ji-won that only becomes more obvious the more time they spend together in this reset of Ji-won's fate. As the story continues, it turns out that Ji-hyuk has a secret of his own. As Ji-won goes through with her revenge plan, she not only starts to change her own life for the better, but she starts to help others in her life who she has neglected.

Marry My Husband Sticks Close to the Webtoon

After five episodes, there are some significant changes from the Webtoon story, though Prime Video's Marry My Husband does indeed stick as close to the main plot as possible. Park Min-young, who stars as the main character Kang Ji-won, does an excellent job portraying the character. Ji-won starts as bitter, angry, and distant towards her husband (then boyfriend) and best friend when she goes back in time. As she walks down the path of her revenge, her character changes, and she becomes more confident, discovering more about herself and her identity. Park Min-young captures that exceptionally well. The overall plot of the K-drama is the same as the webcomic, so it's a smooth transition for the fans of Webtoon's Marry My Husband.

The main changes make the show more dramatic compared to the webcomic, all of which mostly come from Ji-hyuk's character. For example, in the webseries, Ji-hyuk tells Ji-won in person about his relationship with his colleague Yoo Hee-yeon. Ji-won believes the two are romantically involved, but Ji-hyuk corrects her and explains that Hee-yeon is his little sister. In the show, Ji-won finds out the truth about their relationship when Hee-yeon refers to Ji-hyuk's grandfather as her own as well. It seems like a small change at first, but that only builds up the drama and dynamic between the two main characters.

This isn't the first time a popular Webtoon has become a renowned and successful live-action K-drama series. So far, Marry My Husband is showing great promise to be one of the most popular K-drama series of 2024. Hopefully, this could be one of the best years for K-dramas and live-action Webtoon adaptations. You can watch the trailer directly above to see for yourself. Marry My Husband streams every Monday and Tuesday on Prime Video in selected regions except for China and South Korea and on TVING in South Korea.

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