It’s been a long while since we heard news of What’s Up, the campus drama centering around a university musical department that produced a lot of buzz because of its A-list scriptwriter, Song Ji-nah (Story of a Man, Sandglass). So it’s good to hear some news about it now, even if it’s just to say that filming is “proceeding smoothly.”

A refresher: Part of the reason for the heightened interest in this drama is because writer Song’s last campus series, KAIST, served as a launching pad for the careers of many actors who then went on to greater fame (Chae Rim, Lee Eun-joo, Kim Min-jung, Lee Na-young, Ji Sung). Therefore, there’s anticipation to see whether the same will happen here, either with the main cast of up-and-comers (Daesung, Im Joo-hwan, Im Joo-eun) or its supporting cast of fresh faces. The drama held open auditions to cast the rest of the students in the department, and drew more than 10,000 hopefuls, of whom 10 were cast. (Pictured below.)

Song has been highly involved in the production process from the start, and announced the casting of each main actor herself via the internet (using a Korean Twitter-like service), which is also how she announced the open auditions. More recently, she posted about the drama’s first shoots on July 11, having gotten the word from the drama’s directors that all was going well. (As Song noted, both What’s Up directors are women, Jang Mi-ja and Song Ji-won.)

The drama has not yet gotten a slot on a broadcast schedule, and is currently in negotiations with the three broadcast networks. Although the producers were expecting to get an airdate toward the end of the year, they say that at the latest the drama should air early next year.

Here are the newbies, cast through the open auditions:

Via OSEN

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