Checking your watch to see when that next explosive drama’s going to arrive? Keep checking, because it doesn’t look like it’s quite here yet…
- 📈 The best possibility right now is Youku’s The First Shot with Johnny Huang, Wang Ziqi, and Xie Keyin. This police drama is produced by famed director Zhang Yimou and hit a very solid 5M reservations before airing. It just broke 9k on the heat index, so it’s almost there……
- ❓ Born to be the One (Yin Tao, Lawrence Wang, Zhang Ruonan, Zhang Zhehua) dropped about a week ago. It’s more serious fare (a realism drama in an urban setting) and hasn’t set the heat index exactly aflame (pun intended), but its TV ratings are pretty strong (first in the country).
- 🔚 We’ve written about Zhang Wanyi and Wang Churan’s Are You the One and its journey a few times (see here, here and here). Alas, it wasn’t able to grow its heat index to 28k before ending its run, but hopefully the shiny Douban rating will stay high (though it just slid from 8.0 to 7.8). At the very least, it looks like Wang Churan’s been able to successfully wash off some hate from last year’s turn in Fireworks of my Heart.
At least we have casting melons to keep us on our toes, however🍉 …
- 🤔 Another week, another couple of Wang Xingyue melons. He’s been rumored with Bai Lu for the historical suspense drama 唐宫奇案 (Tang Gong Qi An), as well as Li Landi for the historical 攻玉 (Gong Yu).
- ☀️ Those Blazing Sunlight rumors have taken a plot twist: names linked to the Gu Man drama have switched from Li Xian and Tian Xiwei / Meng Ziyi to Song Weilong and Zhao Jinmai! We’re guessing a lot of people are eager to be part of this drama, so let’s see if the merry-go-round of names continues.
- 🍈 Apparently there are rumors of Tian Xiwei and Zhang Linghe starring in historical drama Chasing Jade. The two were paired together for the red carpet during Weibo night in January, so we’ve already got a glimpse of what they would look like together (fun and flirty).
- 👀 Another possible sequel in the works? There’s a rumor going around about Princess Agents 2 with Li Yunrui and Huang Yang Tiantian. The director is potentially Lu Hao Jiji, who most recently directed The Double.
And some Chinese entertainment news…
- 👗 Hello September means hello fashion week! This week, Liu Shishi was at the Ralph Lauren S/S 2025 show in New York. We’ll report back on attendees over the next few weeks — there are some rumored guests we’re pretty excited for! (Zhao Lusi at Versace, plus Zhou Ye and Dilraba at Dior, anyone??)
- 🎵 Bai Lu is turning 30 on September 23 and celebrating by… singing happy birthday to herself of sorts with the release of a whole album. Her first EP, My Odyssey, was released a few days ago, and supposedly there will be a mini-concert soon to follow.
- 🎂 While we’re talking about birthdays, Yang Yang is also celebrating his birthday with a cover of ELLEMEN China. He disappeared from the spotlight for a minute after last year’s poorly received Fireworks of My Heart…but rumor has it that his new drama, The Immortal Ascension, will be coming out at the end of the year.
- 💎 A Bvlgari event in Shanghai brought out some stars: Liu Yifei (global brand ambassador) and Zhao Lusi (brand ambassador) were in attendance at the bash and absolutely dripping in jewels.
- 💄 We’ve got some fun sponsorship news this week: Dylan Wang and Rihanna announced his global spokespersonship of Fenty Beauty in style through a video call together. Wu Lei became global brand ambassador for Voge motorcycles and made us all imagine Wu Lei in a motorcycle drama. Finally, Zhou Yutong also became brand ambassador for Dove Chocolate, a major sponsor for Divas Hit The Road 6, her currently airing variety show.
As always, we updated our C-Drama Airing Schedule this week…
- ❗ We may be seeing double of Chen Zheyuan in September! Looks like his Republican drama with Xing Fei, Dark Night and Dawn, will be premiering soon. His drama with Liang Jie, The White Olive Tree, has also been rumored for a September release.
- ⚔️ Love of Nirvana (Ren Jialun, Li Landi) is expected to land on Tencent this month! If early stills of this wuxia drama are any indication, we’ll see Ren Jialun doing what he does best: smoldering in a great cape.
- 🌸 We can’t believe we’re starting to talk about 2025 dramas already, but Flourished Peony is rumored for a Q1 2025 release. This is a major S+ budget drama and a Yang Zi reunion with Li Xian…so get excited!
- 🏙️ Tian Xiwei’s first drama of the year is rumored to drop soon. In Between, also starring Xin Yunlai with special guest Zhou Yutong) on Youku. This city drama will feature a large ensemble cast getting entangled in romance — but really, if you’re interested in major spoilers, here is the rumored web of relationships. (Spoiler alert: it’s messy.)
- 2️⃣ I Am Nobody 2 is coming! Last year’s hit has officially announced the cast with Peng Yuchang, Wang Yinglu, Neo Hou, and Wen Qi. They released a trailer at the same time – check it out here.
- 🔍 Li Landi and Ao Ruipeng’s historical detective drama 朝雪录 (Zhao Xue Lu) wrapped. And with that, Ao Ruipeng is moving right into reshoots for his role as second male lead in Love Never Fails after Hu Yixuan replaced Yuan Bingyan as female lead (the latter is in the middle of a tax scandal). She’ll be paired with first male lead Liu Xueyi.
