C-drama Adaptation of The Rebirth of the Malicious Empress of Military Lineage to Start Filming Early February 2026 with Leads Dylan Wang and Meng Zi Yi
So it’s now countdown time to the start of filming for the revenge and romance period C-drama adapted from the novel The Rebirth of the Malicious Empress of Military Lineage. The leads will indeed be Dylan Wang and Meng Zi Yi, and they will share equal top billing for their roles. The fandom fights did not derail either of their casting, nor the book reader complaints that she’s totally not the image for the female lead and his acting and charisma isn’t enough for the male lead. Filming is currently scheduled to start February 9th and likely go through the middle of spring. Joining the two leads are newly cast supporting actresses Zheng Hehuizi and Gong Xue Er, not sure which is the other female characters either will be playing but almost all the female roles other than the female lead are total bitches in the story and each get their comeuppance in highly satisfying ways.
Is the one at the bottom gong xue er? Gosh she is really beautiful
She is so awkward to watch onscreen due to her so obvious plastic surgery. Every feature is super exaggerated and doesnt really fit any character she plays. I don’t know why these actresses do this to themselves.
Ah really? That’s sad. I don’t mind plastic surgery but draw the line if it makes them act awful and stiff
Wow so we get to see justice to all mean female characters and not just some? Sounds good to me.
What a long narrow face of a male lead
The book fans are so angry but can you blame them? WHD will definitely want screentime which means changed plot. Lol what a mess.
Crooked face that can’t talk and frozen plastic face. What a combo for this amazing novel.
Zheng Hehuizi once again wasted playing a supporting role. She needs a new agent or something. She’s a great actress and deserves a chance at some break out roles. Oh well. At least she’ll get some exposure from this big budget production, though it sounds like a mess.
I don’t think she is famous enough for female lead role. It’s still a progress
She’s been acting in dramas since 2015. She’s more than ‘progressed.’ You don’t have to be famous to get a lead role. Wang Hedi was a complete unknown when he was given the lead in Meteor Garden. It’s about having backers or an agency. Her agency has treated her awful. She deserves better.
Some vitriolic sarcasm in the comment section cracked me up. lol. I can’t say I agree or disagree though. The novel is so popular and loved by many. Perhaps I should read the novel rather than check out the drama adaptation since I’m not that passionate about the two leads’ acting or visuals. It has been like a drought in the C drama land for a while. I finished only a handful of Cdramas last year that was even rare for me cuz I usually dropped or Fast forward ALL of the C dramas except for my own fav’s. Among those handful I finished in 2025, Fated Heart was unexpectedly entertaining. Then, nothing worked for me after FH. I just found they released The Imperial Coroner season 2. I enjoyed season one so much. Now I’m so ready to binge the first few eps.
It’s truly a bad combo for such an amazing novel, quite disappointed while there are plenty of better actresses and actors with fine acting. I might say Zhen Chenyuan’s acting ability is much more better than Dylan Wang.
I don’t disagree with your last statement though. ZCY is a versatile actor with a lot of potential. Idk why he’s got so much hate on C-net, as if some formidable force has been running negative campaigns against him. I’m not his fan YET though. LOL.
Who is Zhen Chen Yuan ? Talking about the billing-statut-obsessed one after one hit drama with Zhao LuSi ?
I can’t stand Meng Zi Yi. She has that exaggerated lip pout and her face seems frozen and there’s no emotions. I liked that drama that made her famous, but since then I can’t seem to stand her
It’s all that plastic surgery.
It unfortunately limits her acting range as there seem to be only 1 emotion and look on her face in all characters.
Damn….
Better the writer do a better job for the script, since this novel was soooo good. My favorite earliest chinese novel, Shen Miao and Xie Jing Xing duo are unbeatable 🥰🥰🥰
Samee. All that plastic surgery and frozen face expressions. Then she piles on the makeup still and none of her hairstyles in costume dramas suit her. Shes very difficult to watch onscreen
WHD is obviously more popular and has a bigger fandom but MZY still managed to share equal top billing. Well, is she a new tencent princess?
The novel is female-centered. In the first half, the male lead is barely there so if Dylan had the top billing, this would be a major red flag. Honestly, the equal billing is more an indicator of Dylan’s status than MZY’s. Normally, female-centered book adaptations get a famous actress top billed and then an up-and-coming actor second billed.
This is literally about the female lead. All you even need to do is read the title. It’s why it was so popular, it’s because it truly was female focused.
If anything WHD will destroy that balance and in the end, it will end up just another destroyed adaptation.
I’m not familiar with the book. There’s a lot of female-centred dramas with prominent ML (almost equal to FL). Well, it’s not like I’m interested in this drama.
The first half of the novel was all about the FL. taking revenge on her own with barely the ML around, and if he wasaround, he would usually be watching From the sidelines with quiet admiration. This new script will not show that.
It’s only in the 2nd half in Chapter 200 that he started chasing the FL and getting more proactive in her revenge. XJX certainly had his agenda and I could see them messing up the timeline to mix his later stuff with the first half. But that would totally change the FL’s amazing solo quest for revenge. It was her ability to off everyone who owed her while remaining a powerless 14 year old that made that first half so addictive to read and reread.
I guess getting these 2 to lead the drama. The production are betting on their big fandom to make it a popular one from the get go. Unfortunately, that doesn’t always works. The book require leads that can act and these 2 doesn’t have that range yet. Maybe they will give us a big surprise lol. Also casting popular WHD here is already telling me that they will give him more screentime and totally not following the book. MZY is already a turn-off for me on this drama. I tried watching her , really tried and it’s a painful watch. The Gambit was a revenge drama too and a total let down. I struggled and barely able to finish ep1 and dropped it. Blossom was an exemption due to an amazing director/scriptwriter combo. They saved that drama. I’ll still check it out but totally not looking forward to it. To fans of the book my condolences for what looks like a disappointing adaptation.
So far, apart from “The Double” which literally was to 2024 what LBFAD was to 2022, every other QSQK’s works’ adaptations have fell short in term reception (“Female general” tanked and “Glory” was nothing to write home about despite the fans trying and push it hard). I wished this one had a better casting especially in term of female lead. Personally I would have even picked an actress with the appearance and acting ability of a Zheng He Hui Zi (bringing a fresher energy to the already stale long drama market) rather than a Meng ZiYi who is for me the female Hou Ming Hao (surface-level acting skills with extremely modern-looking idol/PS faces not believable at all in a ancient setting)
True, the ML didn’t really appear much in the first half. It’d be better if WHD would just be a special guest so he can quickly move on. I don’t see him needing this role anyway. It seems like he’s only doing this to get that S2 of Dafeng.
I mean Dylan might suck or he might be fine…I’m more tired of Meng Zi yi in everything…
Can we please just get another WHD with dubbing. His role is supposed to be mature. Not childish/rapper sounding. LBFAD really did him serious favors, because his face there looked flawless, chiseled and balanced. Not that his subsequent roles made him look bad, but it hasnt gone back to that level of beauty in that role.
Also, how do y’all know MZY had plastic?
On the good side, maybe Zheng HeHuiZi will shine again with the frozen face lead actress who is obsessed with her look?