Star trio in China's acclaimed tomb raider drama to return in sequel

The highly-rated tomb raiding-themed web drama Candle in the Tomb: The Lost Caverns is set to have a sequel with the star trio -- Pan Yueming, Zhang Yuqi and Jiang Chao -- reprising their roles.

The announcement, made via the official Weibo account of Penguin Pictures' web drama franchise Gui Chui Deng, which is adapted from a popular novel series of the same name, comes with a teaser trailer.

Entitled "un Nan Chong Gu, which roughly translates to "Yunnan Worm Valley" in English, the sequel follows legendary tomb explorer Hu Bayi starring Pan Yueming and his friends on a dangerous mission to a mysterious rain forest in southwest China's Yunnan Province.

However, the announcement gave no word on the show's release date.

Candle in the Tomb: The Lost Caverns revolves around a tomb-raiding adventure in Northwest China's Shaanxi province. It has been well received on the Chinese mainland after hitting online on April 1.

The web drama currently boasts a score of 8.3 out of 10 on review platform Douban based on 137,000 reviews.

The novel series Gui Chui Deng, which literally means Ghost Blowing Lamp, are authored by Zhang Muye under the pseudonym Tian Xia Ba Chang. They were first released and became a hit online as early as 2006. The years since have seen a number of film and TV show adaptations of the novels.