Love Destiny stars Pope and Bella split five roles among them in season two

When the first season of Thai fantasy period series Love Destiny aired in 2018, it was an unprecedented phenomenon. 

With millions of viewers staying home and tuning in, the time-travel romance reportedly cleared Bangkok’s notoriously congested roads on Wednesdays and Thursdays when it aired.

Now, a second season is coming, with leads Pope Thanavat Vatthanaputi and Bella Ranee Campen reprising their roles – and more. A whopping five characters are split between the two actors.

The second season is a follow-up to the first, which chronicles the romance of a modern-day woman who wakes up after a car accident in the body of Karaket (Bella), a loathed noblewoman betrothed to court official Det (Pope) in the Ayutthaya Kingdom, during the reign of King Narai (1656-1688).

The sequel follows the romance between another time-travelling modern woman, Pudtarn, and Det and Karaket’s son Rit. Rit has a twin brother named Rueang.

Pope plays Det, Rit and Rueang, while Bella reprises her role of Karaket and also stars as Pudtarn.

In a recent Zoom interview with Singapore media, the leads say pulling double and triple duties posed a real challenge on set.

Bella, 33, says: “Sometimes there are five characters played by two of us in one scene. Can you imagine? It’s very hard to film and it takes very long. Sometimes there are even five cameras for just one scene. On top of that, you have to remember your lines and the emotional states of each character too.”

Pope, 40, adds: “Having to play three characters made this probably the most tiring series I’ve worked on.”

Love Destiny 2 will premiere on mewatch on Friday, with new episodes every Friday. It will premiere on Channel U on Oct 28, with new episodes every Saturday and Sunday from 9 to 11pm. It premiered in Thailand on Wednesday.

While the romance of the younger generation is a key plot point in the sequel, the stars say fans can look forward to seeing the original couple of Karaket and Det in their roles as parents with vastly different philosophies. The 26-episode drama is still set in the Ayutthaya Kingdom.

Pope says: “I don’t think Det is the bad cop between the two of them. I think he’s stricter as he’s a man from over 200 years ago. He wants to teach his kids to follow the rules and social norms of that time. In comparison, Karaket is much more modern.”

Bella agrees that she plays the more open-minded and progressive parent of the two.

“She’s very protective of her twins. She’s the kind of mother who wants her kids to follow their hearts and do what they desire. If a rule doesn’t gel with their happiness, then she feels that it’s okay not to follow it,” she explains.

While five years have passed since the premiere of the first season, interest in the series has not waned.

A spin-off film, Love Destiny: The Movie in 2022 – starring Pope and Bella as the reincarnated versions of Det and Karaket in the early Rattanakosin period (1782-1855) – was a box-office hit in its home country, earning 368 million baht (S$13.9 million) within a month of its release.

Both Pope and Bella did not expect the runaway success of the original series, which kicked off a tourism boom to the ancient capital of Ayutthaya – about 80 minutes by train from Bangkok – where many scenes are set.

The show’s popularity reached even the Thai prisons, where the authorities adjusted inmates’ television-watching hours to let them catch full episodes of the show. 

Bella recalls the craze at the time, saying: “In Thailand, when we did activities together, the venue would be flooded with people. The malls we were at would be so crowded that there was hardly any place to stand, and the screams were deafening.” 

Pope realised the series reached a new stratosphere of popularity when he noticed trends related to it.

“When the drama was airing, a lot of Thais jumped on the trend of wearing the traditional Thai dress seen in the series. They’d post about it on social media. This wasn’t something that happened for other dramas,” he says.

In Singapore, Love Destiny was the best-performing Thai drama when it aired on mewatch and Channel U in 2020. Its three reruns on Channel U also consistently performed higher than its time-belt average, according to a Mediacorp spokesperson.

Pope thanks fans here and everywhere for their support.

He says: “We really didn’t think there would be overseas fans who would fall in love with our dramas, so the tremendous response truly makes us feel very touched.”

Given how strongly the first season performed and how hotly anticipated season two is, does the cast feel any pressure for the sequel to live up to the hype of its predecessor?

Pope says jokingly: “Honestly, I wasn’t stressed initially, but now that I’ve been asked about it, I’m starting to get a bit anxious.”

Love Destiny 2 premieres on mewatch on Friday, with new episodes every Friday. It will premiere on Channel U on Oct 28, with new episodes every Saturday and Sunday from 9 to 11pm.