In a turn of events that would have seemed scarcely believable up until recently, the stunning first trailer for Netflix’s 3 Body Problem has managed to get people genuinely excited for a project hailing from Game of Thrones creators David Benioff and D.B. Weiss.
The duo were about due some good luck after a string of recent setbacks that included the almost immediate abandonment of the controversial Confederate and their cup of coffee in the Star Wars universe, but the literary adaptation nonetheless has a dark cloud hanging over it after one of its producers was murdered in the midst of production.
Even though the first footage only arrived yesterday, 3 Body Problem has been a long time coming, so much so that production initially got underway in November of 2021. Qi Lin was a billionaire Chinese film and television producer who founded video game development company Yoozoo, and the outfit acquired the rights to Liu Cixin’s source novel The Three-Body Problem in 2014, which ended with him being named a an executive producer on the Netflix adaptation.
In December of 2021, Qi was admitted to hospital and died on December 25, where he was initially treated for mercury poisoning after being given 40 liters of blood transfusions. However, it emerged in the aftermath from local media that the neurotoxin tetrodotoxin may have been to blame, with Shanghai police identifying the CEO of a Yoozoo affiliate as a suspect.
In an even more startling development, not only was Xu Yao in charge of a Yoozoo offshoot known as The Three-Body Problem Universe, but he was reportedly obsessed with Breaking Bad, which allegedly inspired his plan to set up a lab in which to develop and test the poison that would eventually be used against Lin, although details remain scarce given the state-controlled media’s lack of comment or clarification on the situation.
It’s a tragic and mysterious footnote to what looks to be a suitably expansive blockbuster-sized TV show, but the fate of 3 Body Problem producer Lin is a shadow that will forever be cast over the project.