Pan Jinlian
There were rumours that Fan Bingbing would be portraying Pan Jinlian. However, during the opening ceremony, Fan's spokesperson denied those claims and accused the production team of using Fan's name as a means of advertising the series. She added that Fan will only participate in projects her own company is involved in. Zheng Shuang, who played Hu Sanniang in "The Water Margin" (1997), also expressed interest in taking on the (more challenging) role of Pan Jinlian. However, Gan Tingting was eventually cast as Pan Jinlian.