Netflix has not yet renewed the series adaptation of Liu Cixin’s novel from Alexander Woo and ‘Game of Thrones’ duo David Benioff & D.B. Weiss.
The Big Picture
-
3 Body Problem
blends science and entertainment seamlessly, educating audiences on planetary science while keeping them entertained. - Despite its dense scientific background,
3 Body Problem
has proven to be successful and has consistently ranked in Netflix’s Top 10. - Plans for a second season are already in the works, with the creators facing creative challenges as the story becomes more otherworldly.
Generally speaking, movies and television shows are created to entertain and occasionally educate to some degree. Some more than others, take the task of educating their audiences to a whole new level, and 3 Body Problem aptly suits that category. While giving audiences a crash course in planetary science, we are all suddenly ecstatic that Earth orbits only one star. If it were three, literal planetary chaos would ensue — the San-Ti are evidence of that. Despite its sometimes overwhelming scientific background, 3 Body Problem has, in the weeks since its premiere, proven to be successful, emerging on Netflix’s Top 10 consistently. Created by Game of Thrones creators David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, alongside Alexander Woo, 3 Body Problem leaves the world at the beginning of the Wallfacer program by the time Season 1 ends, with humanity preparing for an invasion.
While Cixin Liu’s original 3 Body Problem novel trilogy was considered unadaptable by many, it has been done successfully so far, and now attention turns to what comes next in the show’s second season. While a second season still hasn’t been confirmed by Netflix, the trio are already planning for it. Speaking to Deadline at a recent event, Weiss reveals that adapting the trilogy further poses creative problems, as the novels get more expansive. “This kind of eases you into the world of the story, but the story gets really wild in the best possible way,” Weiss said. “With something that’s that wild, there are a lot of choices to be made and a lot of things to be figured out. We’ve been putting our heads together to figuring them out recently, especially the past couple months.”
While the plot is dense, and contains many twists, the central premise for 3 Body Problem features a group of friends, scientists in their own right, who are caught up in an investigation pertaining to serial suicides in the scientific community. The investigation soon leads to them assuming key roles in humanity’s defense against a full-scale alien invasion that will happen 400 years in the future. Given its global audience, the series had to be adapted to fit that mold resulting in creative solutions. “Out of necessity we needed to be the cast mostly speaking English,” Woo said. “The Chinese flashbacks were very much intact. It afforded us an opportunity to tell a very global story. Humanity either comes together or doesn’t come together to face an existential threat.”
‘3 Body Problem’ Is a Perfect Blend of Science and Entertainment
For the most part, 3 Body Problem is complex, yet compelling and engaging. The story spans past and present, with many scientific concepts and historical backstories that need unpacking and Weiss needed to find the perfect blend. He explained:
“You don’t want people to be pushing pause and hitting Wikipedia every five minutes. You could do the version of that that makes people do that but it pulls people out of it. In the book, he’s explaining all this stuff to you anyway in writing. It was a challenge that was ultimately what drew us to the project to begin with.”
The first season of 3 Body Problem is available to stream on Netflix. Stay tuned at Collider for further updates.
3 Body Problem
A fateful decision made in 1960s China reverberates in the present, where a group of scientists partner with a detective to confront an existential planetary threat.
- Release Date
- 2023-00-00
- Cast
- Benedict Wong , Rosalind Chao , John Bradley , Saamer Usmani with Shailene Woodley , Eiza Gonzalez , Liam Cunningham , Alex Sharp , Jess Hong
- Main Genre
- Sci-Fi
- Seasons
- 1
- Showrunner
- David Benioff , D.B. Weiss , Alexander Woo
This article was originally published on collider.com