so tencent just had its annual release event on june 24th, and i have some minor updates for three-body: the dark forest and the spinoff show.
first of all, we got a new concept poster for three-body: the dark forest.
and then, besides yu hewei being shi qiang which we already know, they announced zhang beihai's actor which is going to be duan yihong. i know duan yihong has been one of the netizens' most nominated candidate for zhang beihai, and i think it's a good choice. he's a good and skillful actor, so no complaint from me.
luo ji's actor was not announced, and it looks like that it's a really tough job picking an actor for him lol. honestly i don't think any of the netizens' most nominated candidate works, and i can't think of anyone myself actually. this is why i think they might be better off picking a lesser known but very fitting young actor.
they kept the same producer bai yicong, and the same scriptwriter tian liangliang, but they did not announce the director. i made a post last year about a rumor saying that the producer had some disagreement with director yang lei and they had a falling out, so the production team might switch to a new director for the dark forest. i think the rumor might be true because there's no point in not announcing yang lei as the director if he's indeed the director.
ever since some point in 2025, i stopped seeing yang lei talking about the dark forest. he kept mentioning season 1 and the spinoff show in interviews, but nothing about the dark forest. honestly, things are not looking good if they really changes the director.
now on to the spinoff show. nothing much is updated, but the show's official weibo account made its first post on june 24 to announce director yang lei, and our cast yu hewei and zhang luyi. there's nothing new, but i mean, if the spinoff show can announce yang lei without any issues, why couldn't the dark forest also announce yang lei???
the last time i heard about the shooting schedule for the spinoff show is the 4th quarter this year. and let's hope that there's no further delays. we need our dashi and miaomiao back so badly.
i do know that the spinoff show has been on yang lei's mind all the time no matter what. in a recent podcast for his other show swords into plowshares, the host mentioned that fans of that show were eager to share head canons and create shipping related fan works. and yang lei answered that he's seen that before in the red (another show he worked with zhang luyi) and three body LOL. so i don't think we need to worry about shiwang not being shiwang enough in the spinoff show. yang lei is fully aware of how much we ship them.
and he's their biggest fan. he mentioned that he's been talking to swords into plowshares' scriptwriter about the three body spinoff show, and turned him into a fan LOL.
anyways, i'm just grateful that yang lei is still the director for the spinoff show. as for the dark forest, let's just wait and see...not to be a downer, but honestly, don't have too much expectation yet.
