According to CNN, billionaire Lin Qi, who was listed as an executive producer for Netflix’s 3 Body Problem, was murdered by a colleague before he could see the series come to life. Qi, the founder of Yoozoo Games, was a fan of Liu Cixin’s (The Dark Forest, Death’s End) novel The Three-Body Problem and wanted to see the novel be adapted into a television series. He was able to gain the rights to the novel as well as the rest of the Remembrance of Earth’s Past trilogy with the help of lawyer Xu Yao.
After a dispute, though, Yao became the reason why Qi never saw the adaption. As CNN notes, Netflix revealed a plan to create the series in 2020. Just a few months after this announcement, Qi was found dead at the age of thirty-nine.
It was revealed by Chinese authorities that Qi was poisoned by Yao. Yao had gifted Qi what was supposed to be a bottle of common probiotics. However, instead, the pills contained a conglomeration of fatal substances, such as tetrodotoxin, that ultimately led to Qi’s death.
In addition to poisoning Qi, CNN notes that Yao also poisoned the drinks in the offices of two other colleagues, which caused four individuals to fall ill. However, despite ingesting the poison, all four of them survived.
According to a Chinese news outlet, via CNN, Yao had a lab in Shanghai where he bought lethal chemicals and tested them on animals. He was also said to have over one hundred phone numbers and a trading company, which allowed him to access the poisonous chemicals.
On March 22nd, Yao was convicted of the murder of Qi and was sentenced to death. This decision made by a court in Shanghai came just a day after 3 Body Problem debuted on Netflix.
Created by David Benioff (Game of Thrones, 25th Hour), D. B. Weiss (Metal Lords, The Creative Brain), and Alexander Woo (True Blood, The Terror), Netflix’s 3 Body Problem is a dystopian, science-fiction series that delves into what would happen if humans attempted to contact those on a different planet.