Gong Yoo's Goblin beats Lee Min Ho's Legend of the Blue Sea, Song Joong Ki's Descendants of the Sun

Gong Yoo's latest supernatural drama Goblin could beat Lee Min Ho's The Legend of the Blue Sea, Park Bo Gum's Moonlight Drawn by Clouds and Song Joong Ki's Descendants of the Sun to become the most popular drama of 2016. According to a Korea Herald report, Goblin has already overtaken The Legend of the Blue Sea on the TV content power index.

Statistics from Nielsen Korea show that Goblin scored 7,449 points on the TV popularity index, which is a record-breaking score. Descendants of the Sun scored just 5,260 when it was on air and Moonlight Drawn by Clouds scored 4,720 points. Meanwhile, The Legend of the Blue Sea only scored 4,315 points in the first week.

Goblin revolves around Gong Yoo 's Kim Shin, an immortal goblin who is responsible for human souls. He lives with the Grim Reaper, and after about 900 years he decides to end his immortal life by marrying a human. One of his candidates is Ji Eun Tak (Kim Go Eun), a young student.

Goblin is directed by Lee Eung Bok and written by Kim Eun Sook, who was previously associated with two very popular Korean dramas — Heirs (2013) and Descendants of the Sun (2016). Reportedly, Gong Yoo was first offered Song Joong Ki's role in Descendants of the Sun.

"Writer Kim has been really kind, offering me roles over and over again. The reason I rejected previous offers was not because I feel like I was special, but because I was afraid about shooting a drama," the 37-year-old actor revealed as to why he declined the writer's previous offers, reported Mobilenapps.

"Unless it is a pre-made drama, the physical conditions are quite different. I am not putting the blame on the environment, but as an actor, I want to show my performance when I am in my best condition," the actor added. "But when we produce a TV series, we usually do not have enough time, so we always work under the pressure of time limitation. So, I did not want to miss out on things that I could share with the audience because of some of these physical limitations."

Goblin airs Fridays and Saturdays at 8.30pm on tvN.