“3 Body Problem” tells the story of a group of scientists who face the threat of an alien civilization seeking to conquer Earth. The Netflix series, inspired by a book of the same name, combines real scientific theories, fictional elements and the occasional bloody moment.
What not everyone may know is that, in real life, the production has created as much drama as in fiction and is even associated with a murder: this is the story of Xu Yao and Lin Qi.
‘The 3-body problem’: the murder of an executive associated with the Netflix series in real life
Although his name is not that famous in the West, Lin Qi was considered a young promise in video games and entertainment in China. He was the founder of Youzu Interactive, known as Yoozoo Games in English, and had ambitious plans to bring the story of “The Three-Body Problem” to a global audience.
To achieve this goal, in 2014 it invested millions of dollars to acquire the copyrights and licenses related to Liu Cixin’s book and began to cooperate with Netflix and the creators of the HBO series “Game of Thrones”. However, his ambitions were interrupted by a betrayal worthy of a Hollywood script.
In 2017, Lin Qi hired Xu Yao, a lawyer, to run a subsidiary of Yoozoo called The Three-Body Universe, which held the rights to Liu Cixin’s novels. As a result of his alleged poor job performance, he was demoted and his salary was reduced. According to the magazine “Caixin”, cited by “The New York Times”, he began to plan revenge for this.
According to reports from Chinese media, Yao set up a laboratory on the outskirts of Shanghai where he experimented with hundreds of poisons obtained on the dark web, testing them on domestic animals. Between September and December 2020, he went a step further and began adulterating drinks with methylmercury chloride, bringing them into the office. Eventually, he poisoned Lin Qi by offering her supposed probiotic pills that actually contained deadly substances, according to the BBC.
Lin Qi died 10 days after consuming them, in December 2020. He was 39 years old. Four other people also fell ill from Xu Yao’s actions, but did not die.
Xu Yao was sentenced to death for killing Lin Qi
As the “BBC” reports, Xu was arrested “a few days” after Lin Qi’s death, but the process to convict him took years.
It wasn’t until the end of March 2024 that he was sentenced to death for the murder.
The Chinese court handling his case called Xu’s actions “extremely despicable”.
What do you think about the true crime behind the Netflix series ‘The 3 Body Problem’?
Source: univision
Camila Luna is a writer at Gossipify, where she covers the latest movies and television series. With a passion for all things entertainment, Camila brings her unique perspective to her writing and offers readers an inside look at the industry. Camila is a graduate from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) with a degree in English and is also a avid movie watcher.
