The Incredible True Story Behind a Netflix Hit Series: A Murdered Billionaire and a Murderer Sentenced to Death

The Netflix series “3 Body Problem” has already been watched millions of times worldwide since its release late last month.

It even found an audience in China, where Netflix is ​​not available, sparking many discussions among viewers.

But many fans of the three-book series on which the show is based were paying attention to what was happening in a Shanghai courtroom, where one of the key players behind the TV adaptation was sentenced to death, just a the day after the launch of the series, writes the BBC.

For what? For murder. Specifically, for the murder of businessman Lin Qi, whose company Yoozoo Games owns the rights to the TV adaptations of the books.

According to the court, the accused Xu Yao, known as a distinguished lawyer until then, was absorbed in the professional rivalry after Lin marginalized him, immediately after he helped him obtain, in 2020, the agreement with Netflix to film the books.

A few months after this seemingly minor gesture, Lin was dead – the victim of a poisoning plot described by the court as both “premeditated” and “extremely disgusting”.

Lin and Xu were on good terms early on: Lin put Xu in charge of a subsidiary called the “3 Body Problem” Universe a year after he joined Yoozoo as the company’s chief risk officer in 2017.

The subsidiary was responsible for securing the intellectual property rights for the film adaptations, and the two worked closely when they negotiated the deal to adapt the novel into a Netflix original series.

But they fell out when Lin decided to put other executives in charge of business operations. Then, Xu hatched his macabre plan.

He set up a company in Japan to buy the lethal substances and even tested them on animals. Xu then disguised the substances as probiotic pills and gave them to Lin.

Lin was admitted to the hospital when he felt ill after taking the pills and initially appeared to be in a stable condition. But suddenly he felt worse and died ten days later, on Christmas Day 2020, aged just 39.

At the time, he had a net worth of about 6.8 billion yuan ($941 million), according to China Rich List.

Four other people became ill after consuming poisoned drinks in the Yoozoo office, but survived.

His death shocked China’s gaming and technology sector and sparked speculation, but it took years for the full details of the crime to emerge, although Xu was immediately apprehended.

“The Three-Body Problem” is the first volume in a trilogy called “Remembering Earth’s Past” by Chinese author Liu Cixin.

Published in 2008, the Sci-Fi novel enjoyed incredible success, being praised and promoted by George RR Martin, Mark Zuckerberg and Barack Obama.

It has been translated into almost 30 languages.

“3 Body Problem” debuted with 11 million views in its first four days and has remained among Netflix’s most-watched programs since its release on March 21.

The series is one of the streaming giant’s most expensive projects ever, with a reported budget of $160 million for eight episodes.

Its co-creators include Game of Thrones executive producers David Benioff and DB Weiss, as well as the book’s author. Lin is posthumously credited as executive producer.