Zanilia Zhao to Lead “Legend of Chusen”
The production team behind new and highly anticipated Mainland Chinese period drama, Legend of Chusen <诛仙-青雲志> has revealed that the cast will include Andy Yang (楊紫), Chinese boyband TFBoys, Qin Junjie (秦俊杰), Cheng Yi (成毅), Tang Yiqin (唐藝昕) and Mao Zijun (茅子俊). Speculation over the leads of the dramas was kept under wraps until recently.
There were rumors that the male lead will be played by Li Yifeng (李易峰), and the female lead played by Angelababy or Amber Kuo (郭采潔), but these were neither confirmed nor denied by official sources. A social media blog recently disclosed that Yifeng will be playing the male lead, but the female lead will actually be played by Zanilia Zhao (趙麗穎).
The source revealed, “It is uncertain when Yifeng will join the filming, probably earliest in January next year. It all depends on whether and when he can free up his schedule. As for the female lead, there have been negotiations held with Zanilia.”
The source subsequently posted an update, “Zanilia has been confirmed for the female lead role. She was only approached recently. Angelababy was being considered for the role before that.”
In response, many fans expressed approval of the choice of actress and posted comments like, “Yay! I’m so happy! If it’s [Zanilia Zhao], I can stop worrying now.” and “That’s great!”
Some fans were however more critical and remarked, “Why is she always playing this type of roles? I’m getting a little bit tired of seeing her all the time!” There were also netizens who maintained a more neutral position and commented, “Hang on, let’s stay calm, fellow fans. We like both Liying and Yifeng. We should support their collaboration!”
Source: Chinayes.com
This article is written by Jingles for JayneStars.com.
I often wonder how come mainland audiences never get tired of seeing the same faces over and n over as well. It’s like she’s been doing non stop ancient dramas and same thing over and over. But if you don’t see her, it’s always the same actresses as well…Yang Mi, Tang Yan I feel like it’s always them in everything. haaha But then if u look TVB same thing, Linda, Tavia, Krystal, Nancy ahhaa lol… Same in every country I guess…lol…
@kiki
Not in K-drama’s. Most leading actors have 1 drama series per year. TWO at most.
TVB is just garbage. They are too cheap to afford anyone decent.
@anon
You are right, they are not that repetitive in casting the same leads in the same year. I haven’t watched anything since Fated To Love You kdrama. I am not much of a kdrama fan either. In fact, I havent watched much of anything but Big Bang Theory and Dancing w/the stars lately. haha LOL…
@kiki Same, I haven’t watched any Asian content in a long time (besides Lord of Shanghai). I am mostly on this site to keep track of news about my friends. 🙂
It would be helpful if a short summary of the story is included. In fact it would be good article if it has a summary of the story.
As for Zanilia, why not? She can act, she can be in anything suitable as long as suitably cast. TVB has worser problem in this regard, don’t see fans crying abt it. China may be a big market but idol series have limited pool of actors.
@funnlim agreed! as i dont read the original novel (not Chinese or any of the other minority nor do i speak/read fluently of the language), i would like to know the storyline as i love Li Yifeng and would like to see if i would put this on a watch list….While i have not been really impressed with Zanilia as her roles tend to be the same in my opinion, i prefer her over Angelababy any day.
I would like to see fresh faces and not the same faces over and OVER again.
Zhao Li Ying Hype Looking forward to her acting in this project. Good thing Angelbaby not in this series or i wouldn’t bother watching it
I’m glad that they have finally settled for the cast so they can start filming. I don’t know the exact story but some people have told me that some parts of the story can be quite bloody sp i hope they alter the story rather than censor or edit out bits of the scenes despite it not making scenes because that is just horrible to watch. I havent seen Yang Zi for a while amd ot would be interesting to see how she fares in ancient seriea.
Looking forward to see new love rumor. As I know, Li Yifeng is still single and paparazzi wasted lots of time and money to trail him but still not had proof. Recently having rumor of him and Yangmi, but more recently is picture of Yangmi and her husband together, making the former false
This article is so late. Li Yifeng already joined the filming few days ago. The title is also misleading, since Zhao Liying’s nowhere near “leading” this drama. Her character Bi Yao is served as a love interest and an important figure to the protagonist’s arc, but she only appears like in 1/3 of the book. I guess that’s how she’s able to fit this drama into her super busy schedule, because her character doesn’t have that much room to play. On the contrary, Andy Zhang Yi’s character Lu Xue Qi is the one that appears throughout the whole book and arguably is the leading lady. However, with Zhao Liying’s popularity they may change the course of the story to add more screentime for her, which I seriously hope to God will not happen. I think the book, despite its flaws, was already good the way it was written. The story revolves around Li Yifeng’s character Zhang Xiao Fan before and after joining the dark side to become Gui Li – the Ghost King’s right-hand man and his struggling between good and evil. Romance is so not the center of the story, but it definitely plays an important part. I love both Xiao Fan’s love interests equally. Both girls are described to be out of this world beauties and strong-willed. One is free-spirited and feisty while the other is elegant and cold. Their love for Xiao Fan is immense and touching, really can’t choose between them. It’s one of those times when you hope he can just marry both of them ;( Looking forward to new OTPs to be formed in this drama. There is quite a bit of bromance in the book too, so let’s see if they can beat the main love line lol. Li Yifeng is quite good with generating chemistry with the guys in his dramas, but I have yet to see it working well with the girls, so hopefully i can finally ship him with some girl from this drama lol.
So if Zhao LY is not female lead, so there won’t have love rumor with Li Yifeng. Wallace Huo tries to stand a little bit more, ok? Rumor you and Zhao LY might last longer a bit, be patient lol.