In fact, while making this list today I found out there are so many upcoming costumed dramas that I'm waiting for. This post is dedicated to my favorite upcoming costumed series, from historical to fantasy.
Anyways, I hope you all are ready, today we will be going over the Top 14 Most Anticipated Upcoming Chinese Dramas in 2021.
1. Novoland – Pearl Eclipse
This is definitely one of my favorite upcoming dramas. Yang Mi & William Chan lead this fantasy drama whose filming was completed last year on September 20, 2020. It's safe to assume that most of the post-production work is completed now and the drama is just waiting for a premiere date.
Novoland Pearl Eclipse revolves around the story of a mermaid living together among her people in a small coastal village which gets raided and its inhabitants were slain.
Pearl Eclipse referring to the tears of a young mermaid, which becomes a magical pearl and is sought after by poachers of the time. Yang Mi plays the part of the mermaid who is saved by the royal court official William Chan.
I think the cinematography looks great and the storyline sounds interesting. You can never go wrong with a big-budget fantasy production with Yang Mi as the main female lead.
2. Rebirth For You
I was super excited to hear that Ju Jingyi was going to be in another drama again immediately following the completion of “The Blooms at Ruyi Pavilion”.
Filming for “Rebirth For You” was completed on November 13, 2020, after 113 days of filming and is yet another one that we are waiting for. Ju Jingyi plays an empress who suddenly wakes up and finds herself at a young age again.
Despite the rebirth, she retains all the memories from her previous life. I'm excited to see Ju Jingyi break from her typical role and play a character with a strong and intelligent personality.
Joseph Zeng is the main male lead and is a general and officer of the royal court who is determined to win her affection. We're still waiting for the official trailer for this drama, but I think Rebirth For You will be worth the wait.
3. The Blue Whisper
The Blue Whisper was announced last year in August 2020, filming had officially begun early this year February 16, 2021. It was announced that filming was completed on June 6th and the drama was headed to post-production.
The Blue Whisper is a fantasy romance drama that, like others on our list, currently has no set air date yet.
Dilraba plays one of four main demon hunters in the world but is considered to be the most talented and powerful. She gets hired by an evil princess to capture and enslave a merman to force him to basically be her pet.
Allen Ren plays the merman, who gets tortured and punished every day until of course Dilraba steps in and plots to help him escape. It's another merfolk plot, but I think this one is good and of course, having Dilraba and Allen Ren play as the main leads doesn't hurt either.
4. Spring Boudoir Dreamers
Spring Boudoir Dreamers is the literary title of a new historical romance drama by Tencent. Its production team held their official booting ceremony to celebrate the start of filming on May 17th, 2021 of this year.
This one is exciting because we finally get to see Peng Xiao Ran again, who literally I have been waiting since 2019 to see again since watching her in “Goodbye My Princess”. Wow, how time has flown by.
Anyways, her character in this drama is a girl who has a talent for doing business and had always dreamed of being a merchant since she was a young girl. She gets memory loss and somehow winds up mistakenly becoming the wife of a court official. He is being played by Ryan Ding, who I am also looking forward to seeing since watching him in “The Romance of Tiger and Rose” and this year's “Moonlight”.
Hopefully, we get more information about this drama, but it's definitely one I am keeping my eye on.
5. A Female Student Arrives at the Imperial College
What list of top upcoming dramas is complete without a Rosy Zhao drama though. Okay, so while they were passing out names for this drama, I'm sure the producer was like, “Hey guys. I don't think our title is long enough, let's make a complete sentence, with subject-verb and noun”. And thus, “A Female Student Arrives at the Imperial College” was born.
I'm just kidding you guys, the title is from the name of the book it is based on. Yes, it's that long. Anyways, Rosy plays a girl who makes a bet that she can convince the most attractive guy in the kingdom to take her to the Lantern Festival.
And so to do so, she must study and enroll herself in an all-male imperial college, and thus begins her long journey as the first female student there ever. It's a Rosy Zhao drama so you know it's going to be light and fluffy, and I think overall it's gonna be a good one.
6. Heroes
Heroes was officially announced last year November 16, 2020 and filming began shortly thereafter, with completion wrapping up on March 28th, 2021. The drama took 130 days to shoot.
This drama is based on a novel and was filmed on location in many scenic areas. It's a wuxia drama featuring Joseph Zeng and Yang Chaoyue as the two main leads.
Now, this drama is pretty interesting because its director was the same one who brought us both “Rattan” and “Goodbye My Princess”, which are two very good dramas with different genres. I happen to also really like the main cast, especially Yang Chaoyue, who is one of my favorite up-and-coming new actresses. Straight wuxia dramas have been a little stale for me in recent years, but hopefully Heroes can come and shake things up a bit.
7. Mirror Twin Cities
This drama first announced its main cast around this time last year on July 31, 2020 and by October 9th its production team had announced that they had wrapped up filming.
Mirror Twin Cities is a fantasy romance drama that features Yukee Chen and Li Yi Feng as the main leads.
Yukee is a soft-hearted and kind crown princess who is revered by her people, and Yifeng is the leader of the merfolk tribe who is committed to freeing his people from slavery. The trailer for this drama was released eight months ago on October 27th, 2020 and since then we really haven't heard much else new regarding when this drama might get released, and so we are still waiting on it.
But I think from looking at the trailer, it does look like a solid production, and definitely worth a watch when it finally gets aired.
8. The Golden Hairpin
Like the rest of you guys, I've been waiting for “The Golden Hairpin” for what seems like an eternity already.
The Golden Hairpin is a historical romance drama and this series had been announced back in 2019 and filming was completed already last year back in July 2020.
This drama is based on a novel of the same name and revolves around an investigative prodigy who gets framed for the murder of her family. She goes to find the prince to clear her name, and he makes a deal with her to help solve the case of his missing fiance, whose disappearance leaves behind the only trace of a golden hairpin.
This drama is made by the same director who gave us my favorites Love O2O and Ten Miles of Peach Blossoms.
9. Chang An Memories
You guys might know this one as the second part of the modern drama “Forever and Ever”, but technically it's the prequel to the two-part series since it takes place in ancient times. It's a historical series with Bai Lu and Allen Ren as the main cast, and you guys already know, I'm going to check out any Bai Lu drama.
Here, she plays the daughter of a noble family who was set to become a crown princess at birth, but ends up falling for Allen Ren's character who plays an accomplished general who is loyal to his country.
While Allen's character is set to lead the country's army to protect the kingdom, Bai Lu has to choose between fulfilling her fate in completing her wedding to marry the crown prince or going with the man she loves. The trailer's out for this one and both Allen Ren and Bai Lu look great, this is already shaping up to be a good-looking series.
10. Who Rules The World
Who Rules The World was first announced on October 27th, 2020 at the Tencent Video Conference with Rosy Zhao and it was not later that Yang Yang was confirmed as the main male lead. Filming officially started on February 3, 2021. This trailer that you are seeing was actually only released last month in June, and it's already looking like a fantastic drama.
The two main leads are said to be like opposites but are unrivaled in skill in the martial arts world. There aren't very many straight wuxia dramas coming out these days that look interesting, but “Who Rules The World” is definitely one of them.
I'm really excited to see Yang Yang again since “The King's Avatar” and “Love O2O”, and Rosy Zhao… I feel like she's been on fire lately in terms of her dramas. I've really enjoyed almost all of the dramas that she's been in, and I'm sure it's not just because of the script. She's just a great actress and brings a really interesting X factor to all her characters. Okay next up.
11. Winner is King
Winner is King is an upcoming historical drama based on a novel by famous BL author Priest. This drama was announced last year on April 7, 2020 and its main cast was officially confirmed shortly thereafter on July 2nd when the series began filming.
The production team for “Winner is King” announced that they had wrapped filming on November 13th, 2020 and dropped the very first glimpses into the drama by way of photo stills.
Since then though, we haven't heard of any other news from this drama and its production team never released a teaser trailer for “Winner is King” either. This drama revolves around a war during the Liang dynasty and a young boy who gets saved as a hero and subsequently accepts him as a foster father.
The boy and his foster father ultimately reveal their identities as a prince and a general, respectively, and must fulfill their destinies in service to the kingdom. It's been eight months since “Winner is King” finished filming and we still don't know of a premiere date, but I think this one will definitely be worth the wait.
12. Novoland – The Princess From Plateau
Novoland: The Princess From Plateau is a historical romance drama that was announced last year in 2020 and started filming on October 17th. Filming for the series took place over four months with the production officially wrapping filming on February 7th, 2021.
It is set in the same fictional universe as prior dramas “Tribes and Empires: Storm of Prophecy” and “Novoland: Eagle Flag”, but not necessarily directly related.
This one of course is special because of its main cast, including William Feng Shaofeng and “Goodbye My Princess”‘s Peng Xiao Ran. William plays an emperor who causes the death of Peng Xiao Ran's best friend, after he requests the Princess's hand in marriage but she refuses.
After seeing her friend die and her kingdom falling apart, she takes on a new identity and vows to assassinate the king. I have been waiting since 2019 to see Peng Xiao Ran in a historical drama again since “Goodbye My Princess” so hopefully we get more information about this drama. It's definitely one I am keeping my eye on.
13. The Longest Promise
The Longest Promise is an upcoming costumed romance drama that is currently in production by Tencent. This drama officially started shooting on March 29, 2021 and released its first teaser trailer last month on June 7th.
This is a historical fantasy drama set in a fictional world and revolves around a love story between the two main leads, Xiao Zhan and Ren Min. The storyline is said to be a prequel of Mirror: Twin Cities.
This one centers around a student-teacher relationship and has already drawn many comparisons to 2015's “The Journey of Flower”. Ren Min plays the princess of a tribe who was banished to the mountains to cultivate. Xiao Zhan plays the role of her teacher who after some time begins to develop romantic feelings for his disciple.
Like the other dramas on this list there is still no set air date yet for “The Longest Promise”, but I'm excited to see another Xiao Zhan series again, especially in a costumed setting.
14. Immortality
Last on this list we have Immortality. You thought I'd forgotten about this one, didn't you? Immortality was officially announced on January 8th, 2020 and by January 21st the production team had confirmed its two main leads as Arthur Chen and Luo Yunxi.
The drama finished filming on September 24, 2020 and released its first official look into the character designs through a series of photo stills of its two main leads dressed in both black and white.
This is Tencent's big drama exclusive and a fantasy drama to boot, so understandably it's going to take some time to complete post-processing and other work. However, its production team has been quite secretive about drama, and now ten months after “Immortality” finished filming we still don't even have a teaser trailer released for it yet.
Still, this series will definitely be one to watch out for when it premieres, and I'm particularly excited to see Luo Yunxi in fantasy costume again after what seems like an eternity now since 2018's “Ashes of Love”.
And, there you have it guys. the list of the Top 14 Most Anticipated Upcoming Ancient Chinese Dramas that we've been waiting for in 2021. I really can't wait for these dramas to come out.
The aesthetics and styling of these dramas based on the released photo stills so far look very impressive. I think this one will be worth keeping your eye on as it gets closer to its premiere. There are so many good upcoming series that I really can't pick any one or two that I can say I'm really looking forward to without feeling like I'm missing out. Do let me know what your favorites are.
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