One actor, three adaptations, and three characters who could barely be more different. Lee Joon-hyuk has spent the past few years moving from unhinged comic-book energy to tragic noir and, now, the very specific confidence of an office worker with lottery money in the bank.
Many international viewers discovered him as the quietly charming CEO in Love Scout, but his roles in stories born online show a much stranger — and more exciting — side of his range. Two of the dramas below come directly from webtoons. The newest, The Ordinary Jackpot, began as a web novel and later became a webtoon before reaching television.
1. Vigilante (2023): Lee Joon-hyuk turns chaos into a character
Vigilante follows Kim Ji-yong (Nam Joo-hyuk), a police university student who lives a double life. By day, he is training to uphold the law. At night, he hunts down criminals who escaped with sentences he believes were far too lenient.
Lee Joon-hyuk enters the story as Jo Gang-ok, a wealthy corporate heir who is fascinated by the masked punisher. Calling him a supporter would be accurate, but it would not capture the fun of the performance.
Gang-ok has money, resources and almost no sense of moderation. He wants to be useful, yet his enthusiasm can be as unsettling as the violence he claims to admire.
The role lets Lee be funny, menacing and oddly lovable without softening the character’s moral ambiguity. He is not the hero of Vigilante, but the drama becomes harder to predict whenever Gang-ok walks into the room.
Where to watch: Disney+. Availability may vary by country.
2. Mercy for None (2025): a brief role that ignites the entire story
Lee Joon-hyuk does not have the most screen time in Mercy for None, but his character is the fuse that lights the whole series. He plays Nam Gi-seok, the younger brother of former gang enforcer Nam Gi-jun (So Ji-sub) and a senior figure in the powerful Juwoon organization.
Years earlier, Gi-jun walked away from the underworld to prevent a war involving his brother. When Gi-seok is murdered, that sacrifice suddenly feels meaningless. Gi-jun returns to Seoul after 11 years in seclusion and begins tearing through old alliances to find out who ordered the killing.
Because Gi-seok’s death happens at the beginning, Lee has to establish the brothers’ bond with limited time. The performance gives the revenge plot its emotional weight: beneath the gang politics and brutal action, every confrontation leads back to a family that never truly escaped the life it tried to leave.
Where to watch: Netflix. The seven-episode series is complete.
3. The Ordinary Jackpot (2026): he wins the lottery — and clocks in anyway
The Ordinary Jackpot gives Lee Joon-hyuk a problem many employees have daydreamed about: Gong Eun-tae wins the lottery, only to discover that the 1.3 billion won left after deductions is not quite enough to abandon work forever.
So he returns the next day. The job is the same, the hierarchy is the same and his difficult coworkers are still waiting for him. Eun-tae, however, is no longer operating from fear.
With the prize functioning as a private safety net, he can finally question bad decisions, push back against pressure and look at his ordinary life with a confidence he never had before.
The setup moves Lee away from the violence of Vigilante and Mercy for None without losing the tension that makes him so watchable. This time, the battleground is a sales department, and the fantasy is not becoming fabulously rich. It is having enough security to stop pretending everything at work is fine.
The drama is adapted from Seo In-ha’s web novel of the same name, which also inspired a popular webtoon. It is scheduled to premiere on September 10, 2026, with international streaming through Viki.
Where to watch: Viki. Regional availability and subtitle timing may vary.
Which Lee Joon-hyuk drama should you start with?
Choose Vigilante if you want the actor at his most unpredictable. Pick Mercy for None for a dark, fast revenge story in which his presence matters long after his character is gone. And save The Ordinary Jackpot for the painfully relatable fantasy of having enough money to finally tell the office what you really think.
Together, the three dramas explain why Lee Joon-hyuk is so difficult to typecast. He can steal a scene with manic energy, anchor a tragedy with restraint or make a normal morning at work feel like the start of a rebellion.