How many episodes is The Remarried Empress kdrama? Four landed at once, then Disney slows down
Disney+ moved the premiere of its biggest K-drama of the fall up by a day, and then put the rest of it on a very deliberate clock.
The Remarried Empress is a fantasy romance based on Alphatart's web novel, which launched in 2018 and became a Naver Webtoon in 2019. The webtoon is one of the platform's biggest hits, translated into 10 languages and past 2.6 billion views as of December 2024. The series is directed by Cho Su-won and written by Yeo Ji-na and Hyun Choong-yeol. Shin Min-a plays Empress Navier, Ju Ji-hoon plays her husband, Emperor Sovieshu, Lee Se-young is Rashta, the runaway slave who catches the emperor's eye, and Lee Jong-suk is Heinrey, a prince of the Western Kingdom who can turn into a bird.
The premise is all in the title. Sovieshu asks for a divorce so he can make Rashta his empress. Navier agrees, on one condition: she gets to remarry Heinrey.
How many episodes
The Remarried Empress has 10 episodes. The first four arrived on Tuesday, November 3, 2026, and the remaining six drop two at a time on Wednesdays:
- Episodes 1–4: November 3
- Episodes 5–6: November 11
- Episodes 7–8: November 18
- Episodes 9–10: November 25
That means 40% of the season came out on day one, and the other 60% takes three more weeks. Disney's announcement lists the first four episodes on both Disney+ and Hulu, and the weekly episodes on Disney+.
Why it came out a day early
The original premiere date was Wednesday, November 4, which would have lined up with the weekly schedule. Disney moved it to Tuesday and called it "a special thank you to fans for their overwhelming support."
That support had a starting point. In October, the series screened in the On Screen section of the 31st Busan International Film Festival, and the reception changed the plan. "The reaction at the Busan International Film Festival was so positive," Cho said at the launch.
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Ten episodes for a webtoon this size
The cast came to the show the same way the fans did, through the original, and not everyone took to it at once. Ju admitted it didn't come naturally to him.
"When I read the original, it was unfamiliar to my palate."
He added that he was "still savoring it and analyzing it" by the time of the premiere press conference. Shin, whose Navier carries the whole plot, came away with a different question: "Will I ever get to do a world like this again?"
The finale lands on Wednesday, November 25, the night before Thanksgiving.
Previously we wrote: Every Remarried Empress location you can walk into yourself: five castles play one empire