Netizens Are Convinced This "Reborn Rich" Character Was Inspired By HYBE's Bang Si Hyuk

Amid K-Drama Reborn Rich‘s immense popularity, audiences are convinced that one of the drama’s characters was inspired by none other than HYBE‘s founder, Bang Si Hyuk.

Recently, audiences examined each drama character’s academic background. This led some audiences to focus on Song Joong Ki‘s character, Jin Do Joon’s older brother, Jin Hyung Joon (played by Kang Ki Doong).

Jin Hyun Joon, who is also one of the heirs to the Soon Yang Group, is the only one who doesn’t seem to have any interest in working for the company. Instead, the character is more interested in pop music and is often seen singing and dancing.

Also, the character is shown to have a knack for being able to predict the future. The character correctly predicts a Korean movie would win an Academy Award (Parasite), a K-Pop group topping the Billboard Charts (BTS), and Korea’s unlikely run in the 2002 World Cup, where the country’s National Team made it all the way to the semi-finals.

In a recent episode, the drama revealed that Jin Hyun Joon would later go on to found an entertainment company called Mega Hit Entertainment.

Jin Hyung Joon (left) is shown as CEO of Mega Hit Ent. Song Joong Ki (right) | *JTBC*

Audiences who watched are saying that the entertainment company’s resemblance to Big Hit Entertainment couldn’t be by coincidence.

“That’s crazy. So is he Bang Si Hyuk? LOL.”
“So he founded Mega Hit, LOL. That’s hilarious.”
“But isn’t the profile picture similar to Bang Si Hyuk’s? It’s funnier because of it, LOL.”
“So was he Bang Si Hyuk? LOL.”
“He’s Bang Si Hyuk? LOL.”
“Mega Hit, LOL.”
“Ah, Mega Hit, LOL. Are they crazy? LOL.”

There is another similarity between Jin Hyun Joon and Bang Si Hyuk. It has been alleged that the Soon Yang group in the drama was based on the real-life conglomerate Samsung Group, to which Bang Si Hyuk also has ties.

Bang Si Hyuk is related to Bang Joon Hyuk, the chairman and largest shareholder of Netmarble, Korea’s second-largest game company. Netmarble’s second-largest shareholder is CJ ENM, whose parent group CJ was once part of Samsung.