Disney+ has achieved its largest global original premiere for a Korean series that isn’t part of Marvel or Star Wars. It is ‘The Divorced Empress’, a palace intrigue romantic drama that has set a platform-wide record based on the cumulative views over its first three days. The company announced this in an official statement published on November 10.
The data has a second dimension: the series has also become Disney+’s number-one Korean premiere in more than 50 markets, including Spain, the United States, the United Kingdom, France, and Germany. It is not limited to Asian audiences, but a global launch from its earliest days.
There is, however, an important caveat behind the headline. Disney is talking about the premiere record among its original productions, not the most-watched series in the platform’s entire history in any period. It has not disclosed an absolute number of viewers or views for the drama, so it’s not possible to compare that record with concrete figures for other catalog hits.
An Empress, a Divorce, and a Franchise with Millions of Readings
The series adapts a NAVER webtoon that already had a massive audience before coming to television. Its protagonist is Navier, empress of the Eastern Empire, whose marriage to Sovieshu enters a crisis when the sovereign falls in love with Rashta, a runaway slave. Navier agrees to divorce under an unusual condition: she can marry Heinrey, the heir to a neighboring kingdom.
The romantic conflict thus becomes a power struggle among courts, alliances, and succession. The story already had followers before filming: the original digital comic totals nearly 3 billion reads and views on an international scale. That figure describes the webtoon’s accumulated activity, not three billion people or the series’ audience on Disney+.
Shin Mina plays Navier, while Ju Jihoon brings Sovieshu to life. The central quartet is completed by Lee Jongsuk, as Heinrey, and Lee Seyoung, as Rashta. The adaptation is written by Yeoh Geena and Hyun Choongyeol and directed by Cho Suwon.
The anticipation was evident before the premiere: special screenings at the Busan Film Festival sold out, and its trailer amassed more than 13 million views in 48 hours across YouTube and social networks. Disney even moved up the release by one day: it began on November 3, 2026, instead of November 4 as initially announced. The change and the initial episode schedule had already been disclosed with the series’ early release in Spain.
When Does The Divorced Empress End on Disney+ Spain
The service released four episodes at once on November 3 and later chose to sustain interest with weekly drops. Episodes 5 and 6 were added on Wednesday, November 11; episodes 7 and 8 are scheduled for November 18, and episodes 9 and 10 will close the season on November 25.
The schedule helps explain the strategy. Disney+ leveraged an international reader base to gather an audience from day one, but did not release all episodes at once. In this way, discussions about Navier, Sovieshu, and Heinrey can extend for much of the month.
The industry takeaway is that a property born as a digital comic has managed to compete for global attention within a catalog tied to major film franchises. The announced record does not reveal how many people have watched it, but it confirms that, for Disney+, its launch has been a global event. And the story still has chapters to premiere.
