Though production’s not yet begun on the Netflix series,
The Three-Body Problem is already being shaped by strange drama following
reports that executive producer Lin Qi was allegedly poisoned by one of his colleagues at Yoozoo Group—the Chinese gaming developer that currently owns
The Three-Body Problem’s production rights and also happens to be the maker of
Game of Thrones: Winter Is Coming.
As
the Hollywood Reporter notes, on Wednesday, the Shanghai Public Safety Bureau took to its Weibo page with an announcement describing how, after Qi was admitted to the hospital earlier this month, his doctors suspected that he might have been poisoned, prompting an investigation that led to an arrest.
“Following the call, the police began an investigation. According to investigations on site and further interviews, the police found that a suspect surnamed Xu, who is a coworker of the victim Lin, was the most likely the perpetrator,” the post described. “The suspect Xu has been arrested and investigations continue.”
Though the police’s post did not share the suspect’s name in full,
the South China Morning Post reports an executive by the name of Yao Xu was recently tapped to oversee Yoozoo’s Three-Body Universe, a unit focused on other projects based on
The Three-Body Problem. Though Yoozoo initially planned to produce a both cinematic and gaming adaptations of the story, both failed to materialize, and it was unclear whether
The Three-Body Problem would ever make it to screen until earlier this fall when Yoozoo moved to partner with Netflix.
While there’s no word on what might have motivated the crime (
THR points to “a dispute among the Chinese entertainment company’s executive ranks” and notes that the unspecified poison was allegedly administered via a cup of tea) reports are that Qi is recovering and in stable condition. There’s also no word on how, or if, these events might affect the future of
The Three-Body Problem series.
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