(Updated Sept. 21, 2020; 2:40 p.m.) Popular Thai actors Bright Vachirawit and Win Metawin, dubbed “BrightWin” by their fans, will star in Thailand’s remake of “Meteor Garden” as members of the F4 gang following their successful stint in a boys’ love series.
Thai production company GMMTV revealed teasers of the upcoming series on social media and labeled a post featuring the two actors with the hashtag “#F4Thailand.”
Bright will play Thyme, who is reportedly the character equivalent of F4 leader Dao Ming Si, while Win will play the role of Kavin or Xi Men.
The “2gether: The Series” actors will be accompanied by Jirawat Sutivanisak and Hirunkit Changkham, as well as actress Tontawan Tantivejakul. She will play the role of Gorya, the character equivalent of Shan Cai.
A teaser video was likewise uploaded by the company which features the F4 members, also known as Flower 4.
“Meteor Garden” is loosely based on “Hana Yori Dango” or “Boys Over Flowers,” a popular Japanese manga that tells the story of a middle-class girl named Tsukushi Makino who encounters F4, a group of popular and wealthy male students headed by a hot-tempered leader.
Its Taiwanese adaptation featuring Jerry Yan, Barbie Hsu, Vic Chou, Vaness Wu and Ken Chu was aired on the Philippines through ABS-CBN in 2003.
Meanwhile, fans of Bright and Win were delighted after the release of the posts announcing their participation in the Thai version of F4.
Some were psyched to see the actors portray totally different characters after they recently starred in a popular boys’ love (BL) series where they earned the portmanteau “BrightWin.”
“I’m so excited! We will see the different side of BrightWin. They can use it as an opportunity to grow as an actor. Goodluck and Su su na!!” exclaimed a Twitter user with a starry-eyed and exploding head emoji.
Others were surprised at the actors’ sudden change of onscreen fictional personas.
“Hindi ko akalain na magkaribal na ang #BrightWin sa Thailand adaptaion ng Meteor Garden tapos hindi mo inasahan ang magiging plot-twist niya ay sila ang magkakatuluyan sa ending. Hahahahaha,” an online user quipped.
“Di pa kami nakaka-move sa kiss niyo #BrightWin, ngayon naman mag-aagawan kayo sa babae #F4Thailand,” another Filipino tweeted.
“BrightWin on F4 Thailand???? Thoughts???? T*ena baka mas kiligin pa ko sa scenes nila together (doon) kesa with the girl,” commented another Twitter user.
Bright and Win recently starred as the leading actors of Thai BL show “2gether: The Series” which tells the story of two college boys who entered a fake relationship that eventually became a real one.
It was released from February to March 2020, followed by its recently-concluded sequel, “Still 2gether.”
RELATED: ‘2gether: The Series’ joins ‘Girl from Nowhere,’ other Thai content on Netflix this month
A Tagalized version of “2gether” was also released on ABS-CBN’s video streaming platform iWant, now iWant TFC.
“2gether: The Series” is only one of the BL shows that made waves in the Philippines.
The others include Korea’s “Where Your Eyes Linger” as well as Filipino BL shows: Black Sheep’s “Hello Stranger” featuring Tony Labrusca and JC Alcantara, The IdeaFirst Company’s “Gameboys” and Eduardo Roy’s “Oh, Mando!”
BL is formally called as “yaoi,” which originated in Japan.
CNN Philippines LIFE noted it is a “genre of fictionalized media that features homoerotic relationships between male characters.”
Editor’s note: An earlier version of this article indicated that the character “Kavin” is equivalent to Taiwan’s Hua Zi Lei. This has been corrected.