Cheng Yi’s Drama The Journey of Legend Reportedly Delayed to 2026 Airing as Second Female Lead Li Kai Xin Will be AI Face Swapped with Actress Yang Xi Zi
The scandal around whether actress Li Kai Xin disparaged Chinese entertainment industry and Chinese viewers in a secretly recorded conversation doesn’t appear to have a resolution that will make the problem go away. Last month the premiere of iQiyi period C-drama The Journey of Legend with Cheng Yi was pulled at the last minute due to second female lead Li Kai Xin’s above scandal. She apologized for causing problems but claimed it was not true, then a purported former assistant came forth and took responsibility for the release and said she maliciously edited and manipulated the recording. Since the perpetrator said the recording content was not true/accurate it should end the scandal but the netizens are not buying this, saying it sounds more like her agency got a former assistant as the fall person to try and save her career. So this week there are credible rumors that the drama is now delayed to early 2026 next year and Li Kai Xin’s role will be re-filmed with actress Yang Xi Zi and AI-face swapped in. Looks like Li Kai Xin’s career is probably done for if she’s getting scrubbed from the drama, and what a bummer for the entire cast and crew to be so negatively impacted.
@Lilith, you are right about this… I dislike AL face swap..but I like Yang Xi Zi, she is a good young actress but she can overdo her crying sometimes.
Yeah because all the courses of action from the production team and Eleanor’s side didn’t match up. If someone had maliciously edited the recording, they should have made a police report and do a forensic check to prove that the recording was edited. They didn’t, so the issue wasn’t settled at all, plus they allowed the anti-China groups to leverage on the issue and spread anti-China propaganda. I’ll be surprised if the drama is allowed to air before Eleanor is removed from the drama.
This is so annoying! The assistant didn’t come forth on her own, there was a police investigation. Now the drama is going to be delayed even further.
Sometimes I wish I would only hear about cdramas once they’re shown. It’s really hard to be so invested then suddenly it’ll be delayed or worse get cancelled.
It is always like this though. Cannot imagine it won’t ever be the case cause scandals seems to come out of the woodwork at just the right time. Makes you wonder why they insist on shooting themselves in the foot in cdrama land industry. Can’t be easy. Yet so many dramas are already done waiting to air and more in the midst of filming. I always take drama news with a grain of salt and hope for the best.
yeah, the just real good news, they chicken deserver