Lin Qi, chairman and CEO of Yoozoo Group and producer of The Three Body Problem series, has died at the age of 39 after being poisoned by a colleague who is currently in police custody in Shanghai.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, the poisoning was preceded by a dispute within the ranks of the Chinese entertainment company. Lin was poisoned with a cup of tea on December 16 and died on Christmas Day.
A statement from the Shanghai Public Security Bureau states that Lin was hospitalized on Dec. 17 and the center determined that he had been poisoned. “Based on on-site investigations and subsequent interviews, police found that a suspect named Xu, the victim’s employee, was the most likely perpetrator,” the statement said. “The suspect has been arrested and the investigation continues,” the letter added.
Lin founded Yoozoo Group in 2009 and was a producer of the Netflix series The Three Body Problem, a new project from Game of Thrones creators DB Weiss and Dave Benioff. This will be the first of both works after the release of the HBO series. The fiction is based on the novel saga written by Lin Cixin. The trilogy started in 2008 with The Problem of the Three Bodies and later The Dark Forest (2008) and The End of Death (2010) were released.