The Untamed
The Untamed is a 50-episode Chinese xianxia fantasy drama from Tencent Video. It aired from June 27, 2019 to August 20, 2019, and all episodes are out. In the US it streams officially on Viki (free with ads), Netflix (subscription), and WeTV (VIP, episodes 1-6 free), checked November 3, 2026. It is adapted from the novel Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu.
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Fans of xianxia adventure, loyalty between friends and slow-reveal mysteries, and readers of Mo Dao Zu Shi
What viewers score it
The story, without spoilers
What to Expect
We haven't watched this one. This section is based on the official episode synopses, the production's own descriptions and Chinese and English coverage, and we'll replace it with a verdict once we have one.
The Untamed is a xianxia adventure built on clan politics and a long mystery. Five great clans share power, and the war against the dominant Wen clan and its aftermath drive the first half. Wei Wuxian breaks with convention by giving up the sword and turning to demonic cultivation, using his flute Chenqing to command the dead, and much of the drama is about what that choice costs him and the people around him. A thread running through both timelines is the Stygian Iron (阴铁), a dangerous relic split into pieces that several clans want.
The story is told out of order. The first two episodes are set in the present, then the drama jumps back about sixteen years and stays in the past for a long stretch before returning. English Wikipedia says the writers mixed a chronological version and the novel's flashback structure, and added scenes to smooth the jumps. Baidu Baike notes that the story only caught up with Wei Wuxian's return sixteen years later in the episodes that aired on July 29, 2019, about a month into the run, so the opening is a frame for a long flashback.
The central bond. The heart of the drama is the friendship between Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji, two opposites who become zhiji (知己), the kind of friend who understands you completely. The novel is a romance between the two men; the drama presents them as devoted confidants and leaves the rest to the viewer. The Based on the Novel section has more on this.
Big cast, many names. Each character has a birth name, a courtesy name and often a title, and the dialogue uses all of them. Wei Wuxian is also Wei Ying; Lan Wangji is also Lan Zhan and Hanguang-jun. The Cultural Notes below explain the system.
How it was received. Its Douban score started at 4.8 when it premiered, then climbed to 8.1 with more than 610,000 ratings by September 2019, according to Baidu Baike, which made it the most-rated drama on Douban at that point. Baike gives 7.7 as of August 2024. It passed ten billion views on Tencent Video by December 2021.
Content notes. Expect war violence, massacres, torture, possession and walking corpses, and a lot of grief. Netflix rates it TV-14.
The Story
Sixteen years after his downfall at the Nightless City, Wei Wuxian, the most feared cultivator of his generation, is summoned back into the world in the body of a stranger, Mo Xuanyu. He wakes up in a village full of strange killings, and the first familiar face he meets is Lan Wangji, the serious, upright young man from the Gusu Lan clan who was once his closest friend and his sharpest critic. The Untamed (陈情令) is a 50-episode Tencent Video drama from 2019, starring Xiao Zhan and Wang Yibo and adapted from Mo Xiang Tong Xiu's web novel Mo Dao Zu Shi (魔道祖师). It became one of the biggest Chinese dramas of its decade, at home and abroad.
The story moves between two timelines. In the present, Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji follow a string of hauntings and disappearances toward a conspiracy among the great clans. In the past, the drama shows how Wei Wuxian went from a carefree student at the Lan clan's Cloud Recesses to a war hero, and then to the outcast everyone blamed.
Release Notes
The Untamed premiered on Tencent Video on June 27, 2019 and finished on August 20, 2019, with 50 episodes of about 45 minutes. Tencent Penguin Pictures and NewStyle Media produced it, Zheng Weiwen and Chen Jialin directed, and it was filmed in 2018 at Hengdian World Studios and in Guizhou. Baike says preparation took two and a half years, two of them on the script.
On August 7, 2019, Tencent let members pay 30 yuan to watch the last six episodes a week early. According to Baike, about 2.35 million people had paid by 12:20 the next day. Netflix added the drama on October 25, 2019, according to Chinese Wikipedia, and it has also been carried by Viki and WeTV.
A 20-episode re-cut, The Untamed Special Edition, aired on WeTV on December 25, 2019. We haven't compared it with the original scene by scene.
There is no second season. Two spin-off films followed in 2019. The Living Dead (生魂), released on iQIYI on November 7, 2019, follows Wen Ning and Lan Sizhui after the series. Fatal Journey (乱魄) tells the story of the Nie brothers and Jin Guangyao.
The end theme, "Unrestrained" (无羁), is sung by Xiao Zhan and Wang Yibo, and Lin Hai composed the score. The soundtrack album passed 15 million yuan in sales on QQ Music in August 2019. The cast reunited for The Untamed National Style Concert in Nanjing on November 1 and 2, 2019.
Does The Untamed have a happy ending?
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We have not finished this one ourselves; this is based on outside sources.
In Brief
Ending spoilerShow the ending in brief
The Untamed has an open ending. The final episodes solve the mystery: Jin Guangyao is exposed as the man behind years of schemes, and he dies when the Guanyin Temple collapses, after pushing Lan Xichen to safety. Wei Wuxian works out that the quiet Nie Huaisang set the whole exposure in motion, and lets it go. Lan Wangji stays to become Chief Cultivator, and Wei Wuxian sets off alone. In the last scene, as he plays his flute on a mountaintop, he hears Lan Wangji call "Wei Ying" and turns with a huge smile. The drama stops there, so what comes next is left to the viewer; many fans read it as a happy ending.
Full Ending Explained
Full spoilersShow the full ending
This account comes from the Baidu Baike synopses for episodes 48 to 50, not from watching.
The temple. At the Guanyin Temple, Jin Guangyao's men dig up what he has hidden there, but the coffin holds the stitched-together body of Nie Mingjue, his sworn brother. Under questioning, Jin Guangyao admits he framed Wei Wuxian through his follower Su She, who placed the curse on Jin Zixun that was blamed on Wei Wuxian. He admits he set up Jin Zixuan's death, out of jealousy of the son his father favored. He explains his marriage to Qin Su, who he learned too late was his half-sister. Jiang Cheng also learns here that Wei Wuxian gave him his own golden core years ago, and breaks down.
The saber spirit. Jin Guangyao takes Jin Ling hostage to escape. Wen Ning bursts in, possessed by the spirit of Nie Mingjue's saber, Baxia, and Lan Wangji cuts off Jin Guangyao's arm. Jiang Cheng hands Wei Wuxian back his flute Chenqing, and Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji force the saber spirit back into the coffin. Nie Huaisang cries out that Su She has stabbed him, and the saber flies out and kills Su She.
Jin Guangyao's last move. Lan Xichen, believing Jin Guangyao has struck again, runs him through. Jin Guangyao insists he did nothing, and that Nie Huaisang, the man who always says he knows nothing, has played everyone. Bleeding onto Nie Mingjue's coffin, he brings the temple down. He grabs Lan Xichen as if to take him along, then pushes him out to Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji, and stays behind with Nie Mingjue's coffin as the building falls. Afterwards Lan Xichen admits he no longer knows who Jin Guangyao really was. The last mark of the ritual on Wei Wuxian's arm fades, meaning Mo Xuanyu's revenge is complete.
Goodbyes. Jiang Cheng remembers why he lost his own core: he showed himself to the Wen soldiers so they would not catch Wei Wuxian. He watches Wei Wuxian leave without speaking, and quietly wishes him well. Lan Sizhui tells Wei Wuxian he has remembered his childhood: he is Wen Yuan, the little Wen boy Wei Wuxian once looked after, raised by Lan Wangji afterwards. Wen Ning leaves for Qishan to rebuild his family's graves. Lan Wangji agrees to become Chief Cultivator, to keep the promise the two once made to protect ordinary people. Wei Wuxian tells Nie Huaisang, pointedly, that of all the Lan rules only one never changes, never to befriend the wicked, and asks if he wants the Chief Cultivator's seat. Nie Huaisang laughs it off and leaves.
The last scene. Wei Wuxian says goodbye to Lan Wangji and rides his donkey, Little Apple, up a mountain. As he plays Chenqing, a voice calls "Wei Ying". He turns, stunned, and then smiles. That is the final shot. We haven't compared the drama's ending with the novel's in a solid source, so we don't describe the book's ending here.
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Cast and characters
The novel behind it
The drama adapts Mo Dao Zu Shi (魔道祖师) by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu (墨香铜臭), serialized on JJWXC from October 2015 to March 2016. The novel is danmei, a Chinese genre of romance between men, and the relationship between Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji is a love story there.
The drama changes that. English Wikipedia says the explicit romantic content was removed because of censorship in China, with changes to the plot, and Baidu Baike says the book's "more sensitive content" was adapted for the screen. On screen, the two leads are zhiji, the word Baike uses for them: soulmate friends who understand each other completely. Many viewers still read the bond as romantic, and the drama leaves room for that reading.
Reading it in English
There is an official English translation. Seven Seas Entertainment published Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation: Mo Dao Zu Shi (Novel) in five volumes from December 2021 to May 2023, in print and as ebooks, translated by Suika and Lianyin. English Wikipedia reports that the first two volumes reached The New York Times best seller list.
Other adaptations
The novel has an animated series (donghua), The Founder of Diabolism, which ran on Tencent Video from July 2018 to October 2021 over three seasons and 35 episodes, and an official audio drama in three seasons on the MaoEr FM app from 2018. There is also a manhua (comic). The drama borrowed from both: Lu Zhixing, Wei Wuxian's voice in the audio drama, and Bian Jiang, Lan Wangji's voice in the donghua, dub the two leads in The Untamed.
Differences from the Novel
Ending spoilerShow the differences
- Structure. The novel tells the past through flashbacks inside the present-day story. The drama puts most of the past in one long block, and the writers added scenes to connect the timelines.
- The romance. As above, the drama presents the leads as devoted friends rather than lovers.
- Other changes. English Wikipedia says the overall plot was also changed. We haven't confirmed a full list of changes.
- Original title
- 魔道祖师 · Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation
- Author
- Mo Xiang Tong Xiu 墨香铜臭
- First published
- JJWXC, 2016
- In English
- Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation: Mo Dao Zu Shi (Novel) (Seven Seas Entertainment)
Words and customs you'll hear
The practice of refining spiritual energy to grow stronger and live longer, the power system behind most xianxia dramas.
Full explanationGolden Core金丹 · jīn dānA stage of cultivation where a practitioner's spiritual energy condenses into a core inside the body, the source of their power.
Full explanationShixiong师兄 · shī xiōngSenior martial brother, the way a disciple addresses a male fellow disciple who joined the same master or sect earlier.
Full explanationXianxia仙侠 · xiān xiáChinese fantasy about immortals, gods, demons, and humans cultivating toward immortality, set across heavenly and mortal realms.
Full explanationCultivation and the golden core
In xianxia, cultivation (修仙) is the practice of refining spiritual energy to grow stronger and live longer. A cultivator's power sits in a golden core (金丹), and losing it means losing that power for good, which is why the golden core matters so much in this story. The usual path uses a sword and the clan's own techniques. Wei Wuxian's demonic cultivation (鬼道) instead draws on resentful energy and the dead, which the clans see as dangerous and corrupting.
Birth names, courtesy names and titles
Educated men in classical China had a birth name (名), used by family and close friends, and a courtesy name (字), used by everyone else. Respected cultivators also carry titles. Wei Ying is Wei Wuxian; Lan Zhan is Lan Wangji, also called Hanguang-jun. When Lan Wangji calls him "Wei Ying", or Wei Wuxian calls him "Lan Zhan", it signals closeness, or a breach of manners.
Clans and their rules
The drama's world is run by five great clans, each with its own home, colors and character. The Gusu Lan clan is famous for its strictness: Baike's synopses mention more than 3,500 house rules at the Cloud Recesses, which Wei Wuxian starts breaking almost at once. Our glossary entry on shixiong explains the martial-sibling terms (shixiong, shijie) that disciples use for each other.
Zhiji
Zhiji (知己), literally "one who knows oneself", is an old Chinese ideal of friendship: the one person who truly understands you. Music carries the idea here, as Lan Wangji plays the guqin and Wei Wuxian the flute.
The Untamed FAQ
Where can I watch The Untamed?
From the US on November 3, 2026, The Untamed was on three services. Viki had all 50 episodes free with ads. Netflix had all 50 on its title page. WeTV had all 50, with episodes 1 to 6 free and the rest for VIP members, plus the 20-episode Special Edition. We haven't checked these services from other countries.
Is The Untamed on Netflix?
Yes, in the US: Netflix's US title page listed all 50 episodes when we checked on November 3, 2026, with Mandarin audio and English, Spanish, Vietnamese and Chinese subtitles. Chinese Wikipedia dates its Netflix release to October 25, 2019. We haven't checked Netflix in the UK, Canada or Australia.
How many episodes does The Untamed have?
The original drama has 50 episodes of about 45 minutes each. The Untamed Special Edition is a separate 20-episode re-cut with longer episodes, released on WeTV in December 2019. If you're new to the story, the 50-episode version is the complete one.
Is there a season 2 of The Untamed?
No. The Untamed has no second season. Two spin-off films came out in 2019: The Living Dead, about Wen Ning and Lan Sizhui, and Fatal Journey, about the Nie brothers and Jin Guangyao. Both are side stories with the drama's supporting cast.
Is The Untamed based on a novel, and can I read it in English?
Yes. It's based on Mo Dao Zu Shi (魔道祖师) by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu, serialized on JJWXC in 2015 and 2016. Seven Seas Entertainment publishes it in English as Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation: Mo Dao Zu Shi, in five volumes in print and ebook. There is also an animated series, The Founder of Diabolism.
Are Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji a couple in The Untamed?
In the novel, yes: it's a romance between the two men. The drama tones this down because of censorship in China and presents them as zhiji, soulmate friends. It keeps their devotion to each other at the center of the story, and many viewers read the relationship as romantic.
Does The Untamed have a happy ending?
SpoilerShow the answer
Minor spoilerReveal the ending
It's open, and leans hopeful. The mystery is solved and Jin Guangyao dies in the temple collapse. Lan Wangji becomes Chief Cultivator and Wei Wuxian leaves alone, but on a mountaintop he hears Lan Wangji call "Wei Ying" and turns with a big smile. The drama ends there, and many fans count it as happy.
What did Nie Huaisang do in the ending?
SpoilerShow the answer
Ending spoilerReveal Nie Huaisang's role
According to the synopses, Nie Huaisang was the hidden hand behind Jin Guangyao's downfall. Jin Guangyao names him as the real schemer before he dies. Wei Wuxian works it out and hints at it, but Nie Huaisang laughs it off and turns down the Chief Cultivator's seat.
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