King the Land team releases detailed apology for offensive Arab Prince presentation, assures appropriate measures

On July 13, King the Land’s production team, JTBC, released another statement regarding the offensive portrayal of Arabs in episodes 7 and 8, released on July 8 and 9, respectively. The team formally apologized for the lack of cultural knowledge and expressed their "sincere apology" for the same.

In the aforementioned episodes, King the Land introduced a new character, an Arab Prince, played by the famous Indian actor Anupam Tripathi. While it could have been a valuable addition to the storyline if presented that way, it only led to trouble as Prince Samir was shown as a womanizer.

Arabs took offense to their culture being misrepresented as people who drink and dance with women for pleasure. Netizens bashed the production team for showing off the prince as an alcoholic and hurting their sentiments.

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“More care will be taken down the road” - King the Land’s production team assures taking measures against problematic Arab portrayal

2PM Lee Jun-ho and Girls' Generation Yoona’s romcom King the Land is currently the most popular K-dramas on Netflix. Thanks to the lead actors’ previous hit dramas, The Red Sleeve and Big Mouth, respectively, their never-seen-before chemistry on screen is making many hearts flutter. However, episodes 8 and 9 gave way to an offensive cultural controversy.

In episodes 8 and 9, the series introduced Arab Prince Samir, who was seen spending lavishly on food and drinks and dancing around with women. The portrayal of the royal family as womanizers did not sit well with many Arabs. They took to social media to criticize the writers and the production team for offending their culture.

JTBC, the production team, and the network channel released a short statement saying that the characters were fictitious and that they had no intention to disrespect any culture.

On July 13, JTBC released an official and detailed apology across their social media accounts in Arabic, Korean, and English. They addressed the controversy and reiterated that they had no intention of misrepresenting any country or culture.

“We would like to express our deep and sincere apology for causing unnecessary inconvenience to our viewers without full consideration of other value cultures although we have no intention of caricaturing or distorting any particular country or culture in the process.”

“It has been our sharp realization that there has been a lack of understanding, experience, and consideration for other cultures. We will do our best going forward to create content that can be enjoyed by anyone regardless of where they are from and what kind of culture they have,” JTBC further added.

JTBC ended the statement by assuring a careful re-look at King the Land's problematic parts and taking the "right measures" to rectify their mistakes.

“We will take a thorough look into the part of the video which was considered problematic, and do our best to make sure that right measures are taken. We earnestly promise to our viewers that more care will be taken down the road so that there will be no inconvenience in viewing our content.”

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Meanwhile, King the Land continues to rake in incredible viewership throughout South Korea and Seoul despite only being halfway done. The series crossed double digits during episode 6 and recorded its highest ratings with episode 9, the latest episode, achieving a massive 12.3% viewership nationwide, as per Nielsen Korea. In Seoul, episode 9 recorded 13.4% of viewership ratings.