True one needs to see the intention of the series first :) for example in The Untamed, the director clearly said it's meant to be gay he even hinted with things in the story he just did not put any "body to body" interaction on the screen. He clearly mentioned it to the cast and it was all about the details and micro-expressions.
I remember I saw a video with Xiao Zhan, Yi Bo, and the director they were eating and drinking tea if I remember correctly, then Xiao Zhan said that Lan Zhan is a trash boyfriend and then Yi Bo was not happy about the opinion asking him why he thinks like that. Xiao Zhan said that Lan Zhan was not there for Wei Ying in that horrible night (fight night) and because of that his character suffered and was alone and then Yi Bo mentioned that in that period of time Lan Zhan was young and still did not understand his feelings for Wei Ying but after that, he regretted it so much. Then the 2 actors kept contradicting each other and saying arguments about the love relationship of their characters, then the director interrupted them and called them a couple saying something along the lines of " sot fighting you love birds, you are making us feel strange" :))
So as you mentioned it's important for the projects to know what the intentions are if they want to portray a relationship even without any contact or living it platonic, as long as the interactions portray an interest in romance is good, but if they want to add new female roles and change the script to another direction then it will not work. We should wait :)
People are still asking themselves about The Untamed as well and its status... when it already was mention it's a hidden gay relationship because of the censorship. Some people still did not get it :) it's BL 100% though :) and it's extra obvious for the people that read the book and knows about Chinese culture and about storytelling tricks and cinematography.
Akiho Nakamura:
NoirRoseHeart:
