Sometimes, the story behind the making of a show is even more insane than the show itself.
In the case of 3 Body Problem, that would be very hard to pull off considering the show focuses on aliens, scientific mysteries, and a world spanning story.
That might just be the case though, as the story behind Netflix’s new hit show is absolutely wild.
In 2020, Lin Qi, the billionaire who had spearheaded getting a Netflix adaptation of the hit Chinese novel series The 3 Body Problem made, died.
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Aged just 39, it came as a shock in China, even more so when the circumstances were revealed.
According to reports by The New York Times, Xu Yao - the executive who ran the subsidiary focused on 3 Body Problem of Mr. Lin’s company, Yoozoo - fatally poisoned the Chinese billionaire.
This week, however, the story has progressed – with Business Insider reporting that Xu has been sentenced to death after being found guilty at the Shanghai First Intermediate People’s Court.
Whilst it has not been confirmed the exact reasoning for his murder of the young billionaire – The Hollywood Reporter interviewed an executive from Amazon, who gave insight into a disagreement between the pair.
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The series was originally set to be produced by Amazon Prime, with Rian Johnson on board to direct.
Lin Qi arrived to sign the deal after eight months of negotiation and a Prime executive in the room said to THR: “It was the craziest meeting of my career.
"[Lin] was so obnoxious. We were one minute away from signature when their CEO suddenly said, ‘Let’s do a joint venture instead’ — which effectively blew up the deal.”
The executive claimed that Xu Yao was one of multiple Yoozoo executives furious with the last second move.
“Their group went out of the room and it was very dramatic. You could tell there was all this tension between them.
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“When Lin was killed two years later, I wasn’t surprised.”
Chinese news reports also claim that Xu was inspired by Breaking Bad.
3 Body Problem showrunners Benioff and Weiss claimed that they ended up sending the reports to their friend, Breaking Bad creator Vince Gilligan joking asking ‘what have you done?’
Another possible reason cited by The Times is that after three years as head of The Three-Body-Universe, the subsidiary that dealt with the Chinese book series, Xu was demoted due to poor performance.
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The new reports surfacing portrays Xu in a terrifying light, stating that he tested numerous poisons on small animals in a makeshift lab.
As well as Lin Qi, Xu reportedly poisoned a further four people at the Yoozoo offices who fell ill – as he had began spiking beverages such as coffee, whiskey, and drinking water, before bringing them to the office.
Whatever you may think of The 3 Body Problem, Netflix’s newest mega hit, the story behind it appears to be even crazier than the one on screen.
Topics: Netflix, China, Amazon Prime, Breaking Bad, TV and Film
Michael Slavin