In an era when xianxia fatigue has settled heavily over Chinese streaming, even a flagship costume production backed by a major platform can stall before cameras ever roll.
iQIYI's fantasy epic The Immortal Bone (長生骨), which stars Esther Yu Shuxin, has reportedly faced repeated difficulties in casting its male lead. The drama was initially titled Shen Xian Rou, before being renamed Nian Xiang Si, and finally settling on its current name. Online fan communities have recently circulated claims under the project's earlier working title Chang Sheng Gu, muddying the picture further. None of those claims have been verified by iQIYI or any official production channel.
So far, five actors have been linked to the role: He Yu, Deng Wei, Neo Hou (Hou Minghao), Hu Yitian, and Chen Xingxu. All reportedly turned it down due to billing issues and controversy surrounding Yu. Contrary to rumors circulating in international C-drama Facebook groups, Wang Anyu has not been publicly confirmed as ever joining or departing the project. Wang Anyu and Yu were announced together as leads for a separate iQIYI costume production, the A Journey to Love spinoff A Journey to Glow. That project ultimately replaced Yu with Gulnazar after the actress was mired in controversies ranging from bullying allegations involving other female artists to questions about her family's business dealings.
Yu, born in 1995 and also known by her Chinese name Yu Shuxin, is a singer and actress who rose to fame as a member of The9 through iQIYI's survival show Youth With You 2. Her star cemented in 2022 with the widely popular fantasy romance Love Between Fairy and Devil. Past hits allowed her previous projects to secure male leads quickly and move seamlessly into filming. That pipeline appears to have slowed considerably.
Xianxia dramas in recent years have largely struggled to deliver strong returns, which has further dampened expectations for the project's commercial viability. The genre's softening market performance makes the search for a bankable male co-star more difficult. Few rising actors want to anchor an expensive costume series in a category that increasingly underperforms.
Wang Anyu, born in 1998, is best known for Dreaming Back to the Qing Dynasty, Twenty Your Life On, The Heiress, The Last Immortal, and Romance in the Alley. His involvement in A Journey to Glow was confirmed, with reports stating there will be no male lead changes on that production. His name has simply been entangled with The Immortal Bone through unverified fan forum speculation.
The actual male lead for The Immortal Bone has yet to be officially confirmed. Whether iQIYI can resolve its casting puzzle before the project loses further momentum remains an open question. For Yu, the outcome may shape how the industry gauges her drawing power going forward.
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