Netflix’s Mongol Princess Becomes a Goryeo Princess: Claudia Kim in Sacred Jewel

Featured photo: Claudia Kim in August 2024. Photo: K-POPIT, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 3.0.

Claudia Kim’s charm is a firm, graceful poise that never backs down, whatever country’s screen she stands on. She rode across the steppe as Khutulun, a Mongol princess descended from Genghis Khan, in Netflix’s “Marco Polo,” then passed through a Marvel lab and a circus in the “Harry Potter” world before coming back to Korea (Wikipedia). On December 5, she steps into JTBC and Amazon Prime Video’s “Sacred Jewel” as Wang Hui, a princess of Goryeo standing against the Mongol invasion.

When I heard that the actress who once played a Mongol princess would now play a princess of the kingdom fighting the Mongols, I clapped before I knew it, as a fan. In a filmography that first made her name in Hollywood, this is her first Korean historical drama (Wikipedia).

December 5, 2026: Princess Wang Hui in “Sacred Jewel”

“Sacred Jewel” is set in Goryeo in 1258, when the war with the Mongols had dragged on for nearly 30 years. It follows a convoy that charges into the battlefield to find the Gwaneum Bodhisattva jewel, a holy relic meant to protect the nation, and the princess who helps them. Jung Hyun-min, writer of “Jeong Do-jeon,” wrote the 14-episode series, and Jung Dae-yoon of “Reborn Rich” directs (The Fact).

• The emperor’s youngest daughter. Kim plays Wang Hui, Princess Gyeonghwa, the youngest daughter of the emperor. She meets someone she loves and grows past the wounds of her past (The Fact).
• Not a princess who waits to be saved. At the November 5 script reading, Kim described Wang Hui as a strong character rarely seen in Korean historical dramas, and said she was working on the many faces Wang Hui shows as circumstances change (iMBC).
• Two men. Baek Gyeol (Ahn Bo-hyun), the young commander leading the convoy, is bound to Wang Hui by a deep connection (bnt News). Wang Mu (Yoon Kyun-sang), the general guarding the frontier fortress of Wonju, is her first love. The two loved each other but had to part in the end, and their story is the drama’s other axis (TenAsia).
• The faces around her. The veteran Yabyeolcho warrior Choi Gu (Lee Sung-min) and the guide Geol-seung (Ha Yoon-kyung), who came from a Ganghwa Island pleasure house, fill out the convoy.
• Broadcast. The first episode airs Saturday, December 5, at 10:40 p.m. Korea time, 8:40 a.m. the same day on the U.S. East Coast, and streams worldwide on Amazon Prime Video (Topstar News).

Where to watch: Amazon Prime Video worldwide (JTBC live broadcast in Korea). The series page isn’t up yet, so here is a Prime Video search link (checked November 8, 2026).

Filmography: from a student who dreamed of anchoring the news to the world stage

She spent six years of her childhood in the United States and dreamed of becoming an international lawyer or a news anchor. At Ewha Womans University’s Division of International Studies, she worked for three years as a reporter on the campus English-language newspaper, and winning a Korea-China model contest in 2005 set her on this path. The next year she debuted in an SBS drama and won the New Star Award at that year’s SBS Drama Awards (Wikipedia).

• 2014–2016, “Marco Polo.” In one of Netflix’s first big-budget originals, she played Khutulun, a Mongol princess and warrior, and introduced herself to viewers abroad for the first time (The Hollywood Reporter).

Where to watch: Netflix (U.S. and Korea, JustWatch, checked November 8, 2026).

• 2015, “Avengers: Age of Ultron.” She was Dr. Helen Cho, a geneticist at a lab in Seoul: the Korean scientist in a Marvel movie shot on the streets of downtown Seoul (Korea Times US).

Where to watch: Disney+ in the U.S. (JustWatch, checked November 8, 2026).

• 2018, “Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald.” She was Nagini, the cursed woman who would one day become Voldemort’s snake. When a September 2018 trailer revealed who Nagini was, it set off a storm of buzz, and she first spoke about the role in an interview with Entertainment Weekly (Entertainment Weekly).

Where to watch: HBO Max in the U.S., Amazon Prime Video in Korea (JustWatch, checked November 8, 2026).

• 2023–2024, “Gyeongseong Creature.” In this Netflix series set in Gyeongseong, colonial-era Seoul, in the spring of 1945, she played Maeda Yukiko. Season 2 earned her a Best Supporting Actress nomination at the Blue Dragon Series Awards (Wikipedia).

Where to watch: Netflix (U.S. and Korea, JustWatch, checked November 8, 2026).

• 2024, “A Normal Family.” In Hur Jin-ho’s film she played Ji-su, sharing a dinner table with Sul Kyung-gu, Jang Dong-gun and Kim Hee-ae, and the role won her Best Supporting Actress (Film) at the 61st Baeksang Arts Awards in 2025 (Topstar News). That fall she hosted the closing ceremony of the 30th Busan International Film Festival on her own (Wikipedia). One of her dinner companions has his own story in Sul Kyung-gu’s road from Peppermint Candy.

Where to watch: Disney+ in Korea (JustWatch, checked November 8, 2026).

Past the woman who carries a snake’s fate and Yukiko in 1945 Gyeongseong, she now becomes a princess guarding the holy relic of a crumbling kingdom. Khutulun, who once raced across the Mongol steppe, stands on the walls of Goryeo on the night of December 5, and I’m counting down the days.