'3 Body Problem' executive faces death sentence for poisoning Netflix show producer
A former executive who worked for Yoozoo Games, the company that owns the rights to all adaptations of 3 Body Problem, has been sentenced to death for murdering the company's founder.
Lin Qi, who owns the high-profile gaming company, is posthumously credited as an executive producer on Netflix's recently debuted 3 Body Problem. The 39-year-old died on Christmas Day in 2020 after being poisoned on Dec. 16 according to a report by Hollywood Reporter.
Behind the Chinese billionaire's murder was Xu Yao, a distinguished lawyer who was also an executive at Yoozoo. He allegedly gave Lin a bottle containing a cocktail of toxins after their falling out, according to CNN World.
Four others also got sick from the poisoned beverage but did not die, reported Deadline.
The New York Times reported that Xu was "disgruntled" after he was sidelined within the company. The poisoning incident happened three months after Netflix and Yoozoo made their 3 Body Problem adaptation official.
Xu was hired in 2017 to head a subsidiary that held the rights to the novels but was later demoted due to poor performance as per the Times.
Lin's Yoozoo owns the rights to sci-fi trilogy The Three-Body Problem, which Netflix was granted to produce and adaptation of in September 2020. In addition to the company's late founder, Game of Thrones showrunners David Benioff and D. B. Weiss.
Xu's sentence came on March 22, a day after the sci-fi series premiered on Netflix.
The Three-Body Problem is the first novel in Liu Cixin's Remembrance of the Earth's Past trilogy. The novels grew popular gaining fans such as Lin and former US president Barack Obama.
Netflix's take on the story earned 11 million viewers in its first four days.