Zhang Zhi/Red Star News/VCG via Getty Images
- Former Yoozoo Games executive Xu Yao received a death sentence for murdering his boss.
- Lin Qi died in 2020 after ingesting poison, The New York Times reported.
- Xu was inspired by "Breaking Bad" and poisoned animals for practice, Caixin reported.
An executive who worked on Netflix's "3 Body Problem" practiced killing cats and dogs before fatally poisoning his boss, the Chinese outlet Caixin reported.
The New York Times reported that Xu Yao, a former Yoozoo Games executive, was given a death sentence on March 22 after fatally poisoning the company's founder Lin Qi, dubbed China's "billionaire millennial," in 2020.
Lin had a net worth of around 6.8 billion yuan ($940m) when he died, per the Hurun China Rich List.
Yoozoo Games owns the rights to the Chinese-language sci-fi series, "3 Body Problem," which made its Netflix debut in March. The show is based on Liu Cixin's award-winning "Remembrance of Earth's Past" book trilogy.
Ed Miller/Netflix
Xu, who joined Yoozoo Games in 2017, killed Lin due to a "dispute over running the business," according to a statement by Shanghai First Intermediate People's Court, cited by the Associated Press.
The dispute was after Xu got demoted and received a pay cut due to poor performance, according to the Caixin report cited by The Times.
Xu reportedly plotted Lin's murder in retaliation. He built a lab near Shanghai and experimented with hundreds of poisons from the dark web — often by testing them on pet animals, including cats and dogs — according to Caixin.
Caixin reported that Xu was inspired by the series "Breaking Bad," about a high school teacher diagnosed with lung cancer who begins to make and sell methamphetamine.
The court said four other employees fell ill, but were not killed, after Xu poisoned beverages in the office between September and December 2020 due to grievances he had with two of them, AP reported.
Chinese media named one of the employees poisoned as Zhao Jilong, VP of the company's film division, Variety reported in 2021.
Zhao may have been targeted due to jealousy over his involvement with the company's deal with Netflix. Lin and Zhao were both named as executive producers of "3 Body Problem" in the official announcement, while Xu was left uncredited, Variety reported.
Writing on his WeChat account after Xu's sentencing, Zhao said: "Justice has been served," according to Chinese state media cited by The Times.
Representatives for Yoozoo Games and Netflix did not immediately respond to requests for comment.