Yes, someone finally went through with this one although there were rumors of a certain someone doing it for years. I was glad it wasn’t going to be that person. Anyhow, I got curious, of course, so I looked it up after seeing some stills floating around on Weibo. It seemed a tad more promising. The director of this production is Jeffrey Chiang, the same director for the recent Legend of the Condor Heroes. This is supposedly 50 episodes, but not confirmed.
They just started filming recently after the blessing ceremony so only some of the stills were released. If you want to stalk them, go here.
Anyway, Joseph Zeng (曾舜晞) will be portraying the main lead, Zhang Wu Ji (張無忌).
Yukee Chen (陈钰琪) will be Zhao Min (趙敏).
Bambi Chu (祝绪丹) is Zhou Zhi Ruo (周芷若).
Kabby Hui (許雅婷) as Xiao Zhao (小昭).
Cao Xi Yue (曹曦月) is Yin Li (殷離) aka Zhu Er (蛛兒).
Sun An Ke (孙安可) will be Yang Bu Hui (楊不悔).
Zhang Wu Ji’s father, Zhang Cui San (張翠山), will be portrayed by Ethan Li (李东学).
Zhang Wu Ji’s mother, Yin Su Su (殷素素) will be portrayed by Maggie Chen (陈欣予).
He Zi (黑子), seemed recently in numerous new Jin Yong adaptations, will be portraying Xie Xun (謝遜) aka The Golden Haired Lion King (金毛獅王) aka Zhang Wu Ji’s godfather. His hair looks super orange here, lol.
Yang Ming Na (杨明娜) will be portraying Xiao Zhao’s mother, Dai Qi Si (黛綺絲) aka Purple Dress Dragon King (紫衫龍王) aka Golden Flower Granny (金花婆婆).
Lin Yu Shen (林雨申) will be portraying Yang Bu Hui’s father, Yang Xiao (楊逍), supposedly known to be one of the two most handsome gentlemen of the Ming Cult.
The other most handsome gentleman of the Ming Cult is Fan Yao (范遙), portrayed by Zong Feng Yan (宗峰岩). He had to disfigure himself to go undercover in the Mongolian forces so the picture above reflected that part of the plot.
Louis Fan (樊少皇) will be portraying Xie Xun’s master, Cheng Kun (成昆) aka Yuan Zhen (圓真). Omg, he looks too goofy these days to take on such a role. (Fun fact: Ken Chang was Zhang Cui San in the previous version of HSDS. The reason I mentioned that was because Ken and Louis had become good friends after working in Chu Liu Xiang together, and even went on to collaborate in several more projects together.)
Wang Bao Bao (王保保), Zhao Min’s brother, will be portrayed by Ewen Sun (孙亦凡).
The guy who was really obsessed with Zhu Zhi Ruo, Song Qing Shu (宋青書) aka Song Yuan Qiao (宋遠橋)’s son, will be portrayed by Zhao Chao Ren (张超人).
Guess what? Kathy Chow will be in here as Abbess Mie Jue (滅絕師太), Zhu Zhi Ruo’s master. What’s soooo special about it? She portrayed Zhou Zhi Ruo in Steve Ma’s version of HSDS ages ago.
And last but not least, the awesome Zhang San Feng (張三丰) portrayed by Wang De Shun (王德顺).
I’ll stop here until people update with new stills. But I’m willing to see what else. Hey, I’m curious.
*All images were collected around the net hence belonging to their rightful owners.