Fan Bingbing is back! Everything to know about her return

At the height of her fame in 2018, Fan Bingbing randomly disappeared in July after rumors swirled of her committing tax evasion. Three months later, she apologized on social media for her crimes, and paid huge fines for her actions. It took nearly 9 months before she would show her face in public again.

Now, after two years away from the entertainment industry, the legendary Chinese actress is coming back. The show she was filming in 2018, Win the World, is finally getting a release after all this time. Streaming service Youku will air the show at an unspecified date.

Scandals for Fan Bingbing and Gao Yunxiang

Win the World was originally planned for a 2018 release, but life got in the way of production. Both her and her co-star Gao Yunxiang had criminal scandals plaguing them during production that halted the show. Obviously, Bingbing had her tax evasion problems, while Yunxiang was charged with sexual assault in Australia. 

Now, with both out of police custody and having paid their dues for their crimes, Talent Television and Film feels comfortable releasing the show to the public. Though, the show never finished filming in 2018, so it’s unknown if the show getting cut from 76 to 60 episodes is due to that or if they finished filming this year. 

Historical drama around the Great Wall

The premise of Win the World has Bingbing playing a widow and prominent female entrepreneur, helping the first unified leader of China and granddaddy of the Qin dynasty build the Great Wall. Yunxiang stars as Qin Shi Huang, the leader of China. 

With such a high level topic, it’s no surprise why Win the World is claimed to be the most expensive TV series ever shot in China. Production having to halt indefinitely probably didn’t help the show’s budget either. 

A surprise for all

When it comes to Chinese dramas, most shows involving disgraced celebrities will never see the light of day. If a scandal happens during filming, the show is shelving indefinitely. So when this announcement came out, it was a huge shock to the C-drama community. 

But the announcement has also come with rumors that we won’t see Fan Bingbing in the series. Some are claiming that the studio has hired VFX artists to digitally scrub Bingbing and Yunxiang from the show, replacing them with not so scandalous actors. The studio has yet to make this announcement, so we’ll have to wait and see if Bingbing makes a return or not.