Yeo Jin Goo will play the dual roles of King Yi Heon (later known as Gwanghae) and peasant clown Ha-sun. After having lived his life constantly paranoid and on guard against palace intrigue and assassinations, Yi Heon will trade places with Ha-sun who looks exactly like him when a poisoning attempt goes too far.
Ha-sun is an orphan who lost his biological parents to a plague, and he begged and wandered the country with his adopted sister, until they were almost at death’s door from starvation. An acting troupe saved them, and ever since then, he’s been a clown-actor who fears nothing on the stage. By a series of circumstances, he ends up as a fake king on the Jade Throne, and despite his best efforts, he falls for the king’s wife, Queen So-woon, played by Lee Se-young.
Yi Heon, who had never known love from his parents, found peace when he married So-woon. However, due to his paranoia and the constant palace deceit, his relationship with her deteriorated. So when he and Ha-sun trade places, he’ll be placed in a position where he’s envious of his alter ego as So-woon (who knows nothing about the switcheroo) begins falling in love with this new side of her estranged “husband.”
Sources: circulate9oo | Dramabeans/Hankyung