Winner is King 杀破狼 is an adaption of Priest’s BL novel of the same name, and has cast Tan Jianci (The Advisors Alliance) and Chen Zheyuan (The Handsome Siblings) as the leads.
Set in an era of political upheaval, border town youth Changgeng (Chen Zheyuan) is saved from a pack of wolves by Shen Shiliu (Tan Jianci), who takes him in as a godson. When nomadic tribes invade the kingdom, Changgeng discovers his true identity to be the fourth prince, and that Shen Shiliu is in fact commander Gu Yun. Gu Yun takes Changgeng back to the capital on imperial decree, and the two must now defend their kingdom from enemies within and without.
Li Hongyi (Love Better Than Immortality) costars as Shen Yi, while Sun Anke (Heavenly Sword & Dragon Sabre 2019) plays genius physician Chen Qingxu. Extended cast members include Peter Ho, Song Jiyang, Deng Enxi, Chen Haoyu and Zhuang Dafei.
The 45 episode drama is a co-production between Tencent, Enlight Media and Ciwen Media (Princess Agents), and began filming today.
I love the leads, and especially love all the supporting girls (Deng Enxi, Chen Haoyu and Zhuang Dafei — I love them a LOT). I was kinda nervous for the production because IP adaptations are already risky and BL adaptations are especially risky (for the viewer, lmao). ESP with how much I adore Sha Po Lang the novel (Priest is so good and I’m honestly really nervous about the fact that she has so many works with rights already sold for adaptation in the future). That said, the concept poster is SO GOOD and I love it, so I’m really really really hoping it’s good. Except the blip that the producer is the one that did Princess Agents which was such a letdown.
This adaptation is very much hyped, but as I saw Tencent and the producer of Princess Agent, I went “Hmmmmmm…..”.
Ah, my baby Tan Jianci’s first lead role! And for a pretty big project, too. I really hope this drama works out and has as much silkpunk as the budget allows for.