David Benioff and D.B. Weiss were riding high as the creative minds behind the biggest, baddest and most popular show on television, and had signed on to develop an entire Star Wars trilogy as their first major project after Game of Thrones had drawn to a close. Unfortunately for the duo, however, the backlash from fans and even some of the cast against the eighth and final season was overwhelming to say the least, with many accusing the showrunners of failing spectacularly when it came to creating a narrative that couldn’t rely on the books for inspiration.
It didn’t take them long to change their minds on a galaxy far, far away, either, making the pair the latest names to have an incredibly brief flirtation with Disney and Lucasfilm’s sci-fi behemoth before walking away in short order. However, they swiftly wound up at Netflix, with Benioff and Weiss set to executive produce an adaptation of Chinese literary series The Three-Body Problem for the streamer.
The show was announced as a co-production with the China-based Yoozoo Group, but development has been placed on hold now in the most tragic and mysterious of circumstances after another of the executive producers was allegedly murdered by one of his colleagues, although the Chinese media have been unwilling to divulge much in the way of details.
Yoozoo Group executive Lin Qi was hospitalized last week after reportedly being poisoned, and police in Shanghai have arrested fellow senior boardroom member Xu Yao after an investigation led them to believe he was the prime suspect. Qi has since passed away, and Yao remains in custody as the case continues. Unsurprisingly, then, development on The Three-Body Problem has been halted for the foreseeable future after one of the executive producers was killed by someone he was very familiar with.