Chinese video streaming site iQiyi, which broadcast the 16-episode "Descendants of the Sun," just entered into an agreement with Hou Hongliang, a Chinese producer, to air the second season of “Nirvana in Fire.”
Hou announced the deal on Saturday at the China Online Drama Forum in Beijing. "Nirvana in Fire" is an online drama whose Season 1 is considered one of the top TV dramas in China in 2015, reported Global Times.
The producer shot the TV series at Hengdian World Studios from February through June 2014. On its second day of airing, “Nirvana in Heaven” logged more than 10 million viewers. When the series ended Season 1 in iQiyi, the show’s total number of daily internet views exceeded 3.3 billion.
“I want to produce a historical drama on the Internet. If I can manage this, online dramas will broaden the market in terms of both technology and audiences,” Hou said.
The show is based on the novel of Hai Yan with the same title which aired two episodes every day on Beijing TV and Dragon TV from 7:30 to 9 p.m. Directed by Kong Sheng and Liu Xue, the period drama starts Hu Ge as Mei Changsu, Liu Tao as Princess Nihuang and Wang Kai as Prince Jing.
Lin Shu, who hides under the name Mei Changsu, is in the capital of Liang to search for justice for a conspiracy which resulted in his family labeled 12 years before as traitors.
“Descendants of the Sun,” which added millions of subscribers to the streaming site, helped made iQiyi one of the largest online video companies in China. Last week, at the iQiyi World Conference in Beijing, the firm launched its own virtual reality apps and a partner incentive program. It also announced plans to produce “Iron Fists of the Despicable,” a VR fantasy movie.