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Main Characters
Lee Chang
- Played by: Ju Ji-hoon
The Crown Prince who embarks on a journey to find out about the mysterious events surrounding his father's absence.
- Heroes Prefer Swords: He carries a sword around and is proficient in using it.
- Historical Domain Character: He's loosely based on Gwanghaegun of Joseon,
being the son of a concubine with an allegedly legitimate younger brother born shortly before his father's death. His abdication of the throne at the end of season 2 is completely ahistorical. - It's All My Fault: He says this word for word when he inadvertently gets the villagers he saved killed for not complying with the royal guard.
- Properly Paranoid: He doesn't buy the stories the servants tell him about his father and sets out on a journey to figure out what's going on.
- Purple Is Powerful: Chang is the Crown Prince and wears a purple robe.
- Royals Who Actually Do Something: He cares about what happens to the common folk, doing whatever he can to ensure their safety and refusing to abandon them the way the other nobles did.
- Sheltered Aristocrat: Chang, while generally a noble and righteous character who means well, has clearly never ventured much outside of the Palace. While he is initially repulsed by the countryside's poverty, it soon dawns upon him how vulnerable the commoners are, and becoming a protector of the peasantry (as opposed to the nobility's generally hostile and classist attitudes) is part of his Character Development over the series.
- Son of a Whore: He's the son of a concubine, albeit an acknowledged one and fully expected to become king if his father has no other male children. This is why Queen Cho is so desperate to have a son.
- Warrior Prince: Chang is a capable military commander, though he knows when to listen to his more experienced subordinate officers. He organizes the defense of Sangju against a zombie horde, and is quite skilled with a sword himself.
- The Wise Prince: Lee Chang is, at first, the only member of the royal court who realizes something is wrong, and only manages to convince the nobles, bureaucrats, and military that the zombies are real by bringing one in front of them.
Mu-yeong
- Played by: Kim Sang-ho
Lee Chang's bodyguard and closest confidant, he protects and stands by his prince throughout the story.
- Acrofatic: He's fairly fat, but can move quickly when he needs to.
- Bodyguard Betrayal: Mu-yeong betrays Chang so he can ensure his pregnant wife is safe before he journeys with his charge. He regrets this when he realizes his child is being used as the Queen Majesty's plan to have an heir.
- Bodyguarding a Badass: Although Lee Chang can handle himself, he still goes out of his way to protect the prince with his life.
- Died in Your Arms Tonight: Near the end of his life as he delivers what little information he had to his prince to save his wife, Lee Chang holds him close as he cries.
- Happily Married: To his wife. Before leaving, he wonders how a man like him had such a loving wife and in the past even went out of his way to try and steal some snacks from Lee Chang's plate when he was asleep so he could give her some food.
- Human Pincushion: Mu-yeong ends up succumbing to his injuries of being shot by arrows.
- Sacrificial Lion: Mu-yeong, the Prince's guard and personal advisor, bites it halfway through Season 2, in a hail of arrows from members of the Haewon Cho Clan.
- Undying Loyalty: To Lee Chang.
Seo-bi
- Played by: Doona Bae
A physician who experiences the first wave of the plague and desires to find a cure to save people.
- Action Girl: Downplayed. She manages to kill off an infected guard by jamming a sword through its throat. When Yeong-shin is about to be surrounded by guards, she runs over to one of them and hits them over the head with a shovel. Despite this, however, she's a physician first and not a trained fighter, which makes her will to survive even more noticeable.
- Big Sister Instinct: She looks after the children and does whatever she can to keep them safe. Before leaving, she recovers the body of the little girl and makes sure she is respectfully put to rest.
- Determined Doctor: The main reason she didn't burn the corpses of her infected friends was because she believed she could find a way to cure them. This becomes her ultimate goal. In season 2, she finds the cause of the virus and how to stop someone from getting fully infected, but is far from making an actual cure.
- Friend to All Children: She's gentle with all of the children she comes across, to the point she would shield herself and a baby from the zombies by covering herself in a flaming blanket.
- The Medic: When her knowledge of the resurrection plant isn't in use, Seo-bi effectively fills this role for the protagonists and in one case, the villain. She also has a few badass moments, like covering herself with a flaming blanket to save a baby from zombies.
- Oblivious to Love: Doesn't realize that Beom-pal basically proposed to her as thanks for saving his life, and instead checks his pulse before concluding that he has gonorrhea.
Yeong-shin
- Played by: Kim Sung-kyu
A mysterious man who witnesses the plague outbreak alongside Seo-bi and is an excellent marksman.
- Boom, Headshot!: He delivers plenty of these with the help of any gun he gets his hands on.
- Combat Pragmatist: He's good at sneak attacks, is quick on his feet and uses anything and everything on hand to take out his enemies. Even when his gun becomes useless, he simply uses it as a club.
- Elite Mook: What Yeong-shin used to be. Chang is told by Mu-yeong that the only people who shoot on the level of Yeong-shin are the Chakho, a special unit of soldiers used for hunting down wild tigers.
- Friend to All Children: He saves as many kids as he can when the city is overrun by infected, and when they find shelter, he makes them a ball to play with.
- Friendly Sniper: While he may not be the kindest, he's on the heroes' side and can easily make plenty of headshots. His marksmanship as well as familiarity with a gun have Mu-yeong question who he really is. However, when they're being rushed at by a horde of zombies, he usually resorts to using his gun as a club.
- I'm a Humanitarian: He cooks up the corpse of Seo-bi's friend justifying it as a way to feed the villagers who were starving. When she's outraged to find this out, he says that this was how people survived not by the king's hand, but by feeding on their dead neighbors. Too bad his pragmatism gets a majority of the villagers infected and killed soon afterwards.
- My God, What Have I Done?: His reaction to the aftermath of the villagers succumbing to the zombie virus he had unknowingly fed them.
- Pragmatic Hero: He's on the hero's side, and he makes the best of any situation he finds himself in and usually gets out alive. This is shown clearly when he saves other villagers by climbing up on the rooftops to club nearby zombies and pull them to safety.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Yeong-shin thought that he was just feeding a bunch of starving people when he puts Dan-i's body into the stewpot. Suddenly, what was a very limited and isolated condition becomes dozens of highly-infectious zombies. And this is right after Seo-bi calls him out for his cruel pragmatism.
- Ramming Always Works: Yeong-shin has quite the habit of ramming into doors and people. It's proven to be effective multiple times.
- Took a Level in Kindness: In the beginning, Yeong-shin is a slightly abrasive man, but his experiences with the undead have turned him into a much more cooperative person.
Nobles
Beom-pal
- Played by: Jeon Seok-ho
Cho Hak-ju's nephew, the magistrate of Dongnae.
- All Love Is Unrequited: Even seven years after they've managed to stop the virus from spreading and Seobi accompanies Chang to travel and learn more about it, Beom-pal still seems to be holding a torch for her. However, he doesn't appear jealous and instead sounds assured that neither Chang nor Seobi will have troubles if they are together.
- Butt-Monkey: A lot of unfortunate things happen to him that cause him to be the butt of jokes. Such as Seo-bi mistaking him for a monster and believing he has gonorrhea. Even in the finale of season 2 while he takes up a sword to fight, he's still running into situations that turn into moments of comedy because of him.
- Crazy Jealous Guy: He's not that crazy, but he does seem to get a little jealous when he sees Seo-bi holding onto Yeong-shin while they're riding.
- Dirty Coward: Left the surviving commoners at the docks while he and the other nobles took the last ship. As the Five Armies come to arrest Lee Chang, he tries to convince Seo-bi to run away with him and she calls him out for his cowardice. At least when boarding he does look a little guilty doing so.
- Non-Action Guy: Since he's a noble, he doesn't fight. Even in the final battle of season 2 when he picks up a sword to fight alongside the others, he's clearly out of his depth and is running more often than killing a zombie. To his credit, he still killed a few in battle.
- Last of His Kind: With his uncle and his cousins dead, he's indeed the last living member of the Haewon Cho clan we know of. It's unclear whether there are others; but considering that Cho Hak-ju grudgingly mentioned that after the death of his son, he was the next in line as the clan's leader, it's unlikely that there are any others.
- Rescue Romance: He falls for Seo-bi when she saves him from the guard that gets bitten. The next day he proposes to her, but she doesn't get the hint and thinks he's looking for a physician. He also spends most of the story trying to keep her safe and worries for her wellbeing.
- Token Good Teammate: Not at first, but of the Haewon Cho Clan, the only morally good member is Beom-pal, who's a pretty decent man and actually does wish to help people rather than use them as tools. Unfortunately, he's a doormat for bad advisors and he's loyal to the clan, including the evil Cho Hak-ju, so he ends up causing as much death as his crueler relatives (he's responsible for a lot of deaths at Jiyulheon and his acting on Cho Hak-ju's orders leads directly to Mu-yeong's death). By season 2, he slowly realizes the heinous deeds his family is committing and when reading out the executions for innocent civilians be tried as traitors to be beheaded, he can't make himself go through with the order.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Seo-bi rightfully calls out Beom-pal for not listening to her and Yeong-shin's warnings about the undead, which caused a lot of carnage for the Jiyulheon villagers. Additionally, she calls him a coward for wanting to run away with her knowing that Change will be arrested by the royal guard.
Cho Hak-ju
- Played by: Ryu Seong-ryong
Joseon's Chief State Councillor. The head of the Haewon Cho Clan and father of the Queen Consort.
- Asshole Victim: No one is sorry when he dies.
- Blood from the Mouth: After his daughter poisons him with the tea he drank, he slowly starts to cough up blood and eventually dies as he crawls towards her.
- Even Evil Has Standards: He's utterly vile, but not even he approves of his daughter's plan.
- Evil Chancellor: Plots with his daughter to seize the throne.
- Facial Horror: A zombie bites off part of his face, and Seobi manages to save his life.
Queen Consort Cho
- Played by: Kim Hye-jun
The king's new wife and Lee Chang's stepmother.
- Badass Boast: "If I can't have the throne... well then... no one can!"
- Came Back Wrong: She willingly gets bitten and comes back as a zombie.
- Face Death with Dignity: Even when facing a horde of rushing zombies, she merely stands tall and calmly accepts her death.
- Fake Pregnancy: After losing her own child via miscarriage, she fakes that everything is normal and plans on stealing a baby from one of the pregnant women under her care and claim that baby as the heir to the throne.
- God Save Us from the Queen!: She's partly responsible for the zombie outbreak, and she unleashes a horde of zombies to kill everyone who opposes her.
- Last Words: "Father, are you watching? You see? They will take nothing from me."
- Law of Inverse Fertility: Despite repeated treatments she could never conceive and took drastic measures to manufacture an heir.
- Significant Wardrobe Shift: In the last two episodes of season 2, she wears a grand robe that looks similar to armor.
- Slasher Smile: Whenever she smiles it's never comforting.
- Softspoken Sadist: While she doesn't overtly take pleasure in the suffering she causes to others, she speaks very quietly.
- The Stoic: She hardly ever emotes, which makes her all the more deadly to others when they find out her true plan. Even when she's about to die, she is the epitome of calm.
- Taking You with Me: She's willing to unleash the plague on the entire capital if it means that no one else will be able to take the throne from her.
- The Unfavorite: Her father just thinks of her as a way to gain power within the court and cares more about a potential heir than her.
King of Joseon
The current ruler of the Joseon dynasty. Has been dead since the start of the series, but his reanimated corpse is the first zombie of the outbreak.
- Came Back Wrong
- Dead All Along: Died of smallpox before the series started. The Haewon Cho clan is pretending he's alive so they can rule by proxy until a prince is born.
- EL Cid Ploy: Is used in one by Cho Hak-ju, who takes it to the next level by having him turned into a zombie.
- Historical Domain Character: He's Seonjo of Joseon. Though recorded history clearly doesn't match up with the events of the series.
- No Name Given: Is only ever referred to by his titles.
- Off with His Head!: How Lee Chang eventually puts him down for good.
- Plot-Triggering Death: Both the political storyline and the zombie plague storyline.
The King
King Lee Yuom
The son of Mu-yeong, forcibly abducted/adopted by Queen Cho so she could claim him to be her son by the King. After the Time Skip he is the young King of Joseon.
- Scars Are Forever: The bite marks he received as a newborn are still visible 7 years later. Worryingly, there still seems to be an active plague worm in them.
- Someone to Remember Him By: A downplayed example; his (real) father was killed a few days before he was born.
