The creators explain how the second season will be stronger than the first, even before knowing if Netflix will renew its expensive sci-fi epic: “The story takes a big leap forward in the second volume.”
Launched a little over a week ago on Netflix, The 3-Body Problem, the new series from the creators of Game of Thrones with Alexander Woo seems to leave no one indifferent.
The spectators are also divided. Some fans of Liu Cixin’s novel criticize the series for its bold adaptation choices, and many others say it is one of the best series of the genre they have ever watched. Yet among fans who have completed the series so far, a consistent reaction emerges: The end of the series made them want to see the sequel.
The creators are in
For their part, showrunners David Benioff, DB Weiss and Alexander Woo suggest that the second season will be even better than the first. Benioff told Hollywood Reporter : “There’s a scene in season 2 where things get wild and if we make it, we’ll be varnished – like when we got to the Red Wedding in Game of Thrones“.
“We also spoke with Netflix officials about it“, he added. “Liu Cixin created this indelible trilogy and the books just keep getting better for me. The second book is much better than the first, and the third completely blew me away. The story becomes more and more ambitious as it progresses, and it takes a big leap forward in the second book. So I feel like if we survive the second season, we’ll be in a good place.“
An expensive series…
The downside of the 3-Body Problem is its high price. As we announced to you when it was released, it would be the most expensive series in Netflix history, with a cost of around $20 million per episode. This is a price that the broadcaster could have borne more easily a few years ago, when the platform financed all its projects in all directions.
And Netflix is notoriously pragmatic when it comes to making renewal decisions. “Budget and audience size factor into renewal decisions” content director Bela Bajaria said last year. “Commitment is very important. Did viewers hit the ‘play’ button, but didn’t finish the series?“
When it was launched, The Three-Body Problem did not break any viewing records. Still according to The Hollywood Reporter, it rose to second place in Netflix’s top series. Which is good, but the platform could have hoped for better.
But a prestige series
We must not remove from the equation that The 3-Body Problem is not a mid-range series and that the simple name of Benioff and Weiss is there to spruce up the showcase. The fact that they were signed under a multi-year overall deal worth at least $200 million and that this is the only series they have created themselves (with Alexander Woo) is also a key element.
Streaming platforms and TV networks tend to be a little more hesitant about scrapping series made by their bigwigs (which isn’t to say Netflix won’t pull the trigger – they removed Ratched from Ryan Murphy after one season, for example).
The other positive sign is that Netflix is going all out in promoting the series, which is not always the case. And unlike some of its competitors, the platform is doing quite well at the moment. In its latest quarterly report, the service gained 13 million subscribers and the stock has almost recovered from its disastrous fall in 2022.
Good hope
The creators of The 3-Body Problem say they envision the series as ideally spanning four seasons (with, spoiler alert:
a big jump in time for the second season).
Although it is difficult to know if they will have their four seasons – and the audiences of the series, still unknown, will be decisive – The 3-Body Problem has several factors in its favor for a renewal. For their part, the showrunners are proceeding as if a renewal was going to happen, so they are ready to get back to production quickly.
“We don’t have a second season, but we have to keep moving full speed ahead as if we do“, Benioff recently told GamesRadar. “Indeed, if we get a second season, we will have to get to work in terms of pre-production and production in order to be able to release it in a reasonable time frame.“
So fingers crossed!