A new wuxia drama titled Who Rules The World is scheduled to premiere on Chinese streaming platform Tencent Video and its overseas version WeTV on Monday, April 18.
On April 8, it only took hours for the release announcement on the program’s official Weibo account to gain close to 230,000 likes. The new trailer for the series has also received a warm reception, with more than 2 million views at the time of writing.
A small-screen adaptation of author Qing Lingyue’s namesake novel, the drama spotlights a couple caught up in the martial arts world and the chaos of war.
Actor Yang Yang, who also appears in Glory of the Special Forces, a military TV show that started streaming on April 5, plays the male lead. Zhao Lusi, who rose to fame after starring in the gender-reversing drama The Romance of Tiger and Rose, plays his love interest of the fairer sex.
The official poster for Who Rules The World. Image via Weibo
Hashtags speak louder than words in this digital age, and Who Rules The World has already been tagged some 170 million times on Weibo. But there is little doubt about which actor is raking in interest: The hashtag for Yang Yang’s character, Feng Lanxi, has been used around 1.6 billion times thanks to his hoards of fans who have reposted pictures of the actor on set and clips from the new trailer.
“I don’t know how many times I have replayed the trailer. Finally, Feng Lanxi is here!” gushed a commenter.
Yang Yang on the set of Who Rules The World. Image via Weibo
The 30-year-old actor’s fanbase is thrilled to see him in his first costume drama since 2017 (Once Upon a Time).
“This is the cream of the crop when it comes to male characters in costume dramas,” reads a Weibo comment, which has gained more than 8,000 likes.
The Shanghai-born actor enjoys unprecedented popularity in China. Not only was Yang Yang the first actor to be featured on postage stamps in China in 2017, but he was also immortalized as a wax figurine at Madame Tussauds Shanghai that same year.
With his military and professional dance background and ‘little fresh meat‘ visage, Yang Yang is a top pick among casting agents. His rise to fame can be credited to his acceptance of roles in box office hits like I Belonged to You and LoveO2O.
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Cover image via Weibo
