Allen Ren Confirmed for High Profile Fantasy C-drama Wu Geng Ji But Production Embroiled in Controversy After Li Yi Tong Drops Out Alleging Online Bullying and Lack of Support
So the positive news first – high profile live-action fantasy C-drama Wu Geng Ji, adapted from the hit anime of the same name, has its confirmed male lead in Allen Ren (Ren Jia Lun). He’s been rumored alongside Li Yi Tong for this drama for months so this confirmation for those in the know is not a surprise, what is a surprise is the same day Li Yi Tong’s agency released a long personal message that she has declined the drama. The statement explained that she was offered and accepted the role and was preparing diligently for it, even declining other projects, when online rumors started that her side was adding more female lead scenes and also rewriting the female lead character to not resemble the original story. Her side claimed it’s all not true but the production did not come out and support her, and now started to promote the drama without notifying or involving her so she has decided to leave the project feeling like it’s not the right fit. Reportedly the new female lead will be Zhu Xu Dan, and much as I am not a Li Yi Tong fan I can say this is an absolute downgrade. Zhu Xu Dan is maybe a step above Angelababy and Chen Yu Qi in being a total void onscreen. Sigh, so much drama and filming hasn’t even started yet.
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I feel bad for LYT. She always get so much hate from netizens. It’s probably bc she got lead roles right from the beginning and rumors of her being from a rich family. The girl works hard and is good at her craft. I can’t imagine how much hate she would get if she does make it big. It’s like you want to be a big star but the there’s a high price for it.
I’m glad she dropped out of this drama though. They made rumors that she bought more screen time and the production was rather unprofessional about it. Allen’s fans also attacked her maliciously. Idk why Chinese fans are so crazy.
At first Zhu Xu Dan was only a supporting cast. Now they’re stuck with her so she’s the only one winning really. I was going to check out the drama because I like Allen Ren but no thanks now.
I really hope they would think about casting Li Yi Tong as Si Ming again. She was perfect for that role.
I agree w u. And this supposed bullying if it occurred b4 she started acting I feel a person should b given a second chance to make amends. If bulling is true. She didn’t it wasn’t all true so not checking into the matter is just laziness r I don’t care attitude by the producer/director r whomever is in charge of hiring. So what if she’s from a rich family. There’s many actors who r rich. What’s going on with people. U want the best actors for ur movie unless they don’t care about that because money is no object to them.
Just have Zhao Lusi as the female lead. So much hassles involving the other actress. Love Ren Jialun as the male lead
I like LYT and looking forward to this pairing, but this is the right decision.
Although I still haven’t managed to recognise her face, she struck me as a professional actress as she hardly causes any controversies for the sake of liuliang. This issue definitely started from Ren Jialun’s fans first, so I side with Li Yitong on this.
I like RJL, or I at least enjoyed 2 of his dramas immensely. But capital is really scary in c-ent. They trample you down no matter how good or how strong your reach is. What they did to LYT is unacceptable. I remember Xiao Zhan was on the same situation last year for the military drama he starred in called Ace Troops with Johhny (forgot the last name). The day before the conference, the production team released two tags, one for XZ and one for J, indicating two leads, both to be participating in the conference. The XZ tag, and of course the drama, made a big splash on line with everyone anticipating XZ to be present in the conference. As many c-ent followers know, XZ is probably the most popular Chinese actor to date and his traffic is top notch. The day of the conference, they removed XZ tag and he was nowhere to be found in the conference and his photo removed. There were talks right after that that his scenes were cut down to only barely 20%, or something. That incident backfired eventually because all his fans and passersby were disgusted by what capital tried to pull, capital which support Johnny only (but needed XZ’s traffic to generate buzz and attract commercials). So the drama’s release was delayed for many months and the buzz died down completely. When it was released, XZ was confirmed as co-lead, but the screen time and story was focused on Johnny’s non-military narrative along romance with the female lead. The military story was delivered by XZ. Johnny’s acting and storyline were so bad vs XZ’s delivery but they butchered the drama overall. It would have been a great military drama spanning 40 years of military history but capital butchered it to pieces. In fact, Johnny’s storyline was so useless you can actually removed 80% and the drama would make better sense. About 80% of this drama’s buzz was attributed to XZ.
This RJL drama was announced with them saying no need to announce anyone else since it’s male centric drama. That is so disrespectful. Major turn off.
Capital is scary, but also ruins many great works.
The difference in these two situations is that luckily, she could get away before filming. He was stuck as it was after and unfortunately his cut scenes remained cut and the drama greatly suffered for it. It was so stupid, HJY would have benefited more if he let it be but he wanted it all and ended up with nothing but a bad rep. Or should I say worse, considering everything else he has done.
I am so glad she managed to escape. I can only imagine what horror waited if she had learned of this after filming.
Good for her, that was an awful stunt to pull. Let him play the female roles too!
Word on Chinese sns is that the drama is getting downgraded in production terms. If so, karma!
This is all on the production company. They gave the female lead a brief saying that her character is gonna be so and so, then turn around and reassure the male lead’s fans that there is no such character and it’s going to be full focus on him only. That is super disrespectful. Not to mention that the cast announcement was not discussed with the female lead at all. Even more infuriating is Allen Ren’s fans claiming that she tried to modify the script to give herself more screen time and is dropping out because the company refused to give in. What bullshit. You bully a female actor and then go on to spread rumors and lies. I also see now his fans are claiming that she’s doing this as a publicity stunt. Wtf. I’ve seen his fans talking shit about his two previous projects and his co-stars in them even though he himself was the black sheep, but this is on a totally different level. To spout nonsense and push the blame. Plain disgusting.
Headdesking here. Bambi Zhu can’t act for coconuts, her presence on screen is sleep inducing, and now they are pairing her with Allen whose acting is hit or miss?