In January 2024, Netflix will launch “The 3-Body Problem” the new series from the creators of Game of Thrones. Here is all the information known to date on one of the most anticipated series of this season.
In the vastness of space, anything is possible. Everything is imaginable. Including the existence of extraterrestrial intelligent life. What if the Earth was visited by this intelligence? What would happen? What would that look like? That’s the ambition behind The Three-Body Problem, an ambitious sci-fi series from Game of Thrones creators David Benioff and DB Weiss.
What is it about ?
In 1960s China, a young woman makes a disastrous decision whose repercussions across time and space will affect a group of brilliant researchers in today’s world. As the laws of nature go awry before their eyes, five former colleagues reunite to face the greatest danger that has ever threatened humanity.
Adapted from the book The Three-Body Problem by Liu Cixin (2014).
What does it look like ?
The first 3-Body Problem teaser premiered during Netflix’s Tudum event on June 17. In one month, it already counts 10 million views on YouTube. Other than a voiceover, we don’t hear any of the show’s dialogue, but we do get a glimpse of its already very impressive actors and shots. We also understand that several alternative timelines (and?) will populate the series and therefore make us play with our brains.
When is it coming out?
We hoped for 2023, but this will not be the case. If we don’t know the exact date, Netflix took advantage of the reveal of the teaser at Tudum to give a slightly more precise indication of the launch date. It will therefore be for the month of January 2024. We will have to arm ourselves with a little more patience.
Where does it come out?
The 3-Body Problem will be released exclusively on Netflix worldwide. Game Of Thrones creators David Benioff and DB Weiss struck an exclusive $200 million deal with Netflix in 2019 to create new shows and movies.
Who is it with?
While we shouldn’t expect to see stars, as one might assume from the notoriety of the creators, the series will nevertheless present some familiar faces. The story of 3-Body Problem spans two periods: the Chinese Cultural Revolution of the 1960s and the current era.
The main cast of the series are Liam Cunningham, John Bradley, Jonathan Pryce (three Game of Thrones alumni), Benedict Wong (Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness), Tsai Chin (Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings), Eiza Gonzalez (Baby Driver), Alex Sharp (Chicago Seven), Saamer Usmani (Inventing Anna), Jovan Adepo (Fences), Sea Shimooka (Arrow), Rosalind Chao (Mulan), Ben Schnetzer (Warcraft), Jason Forbes ( Borg/McEnroe), Stacy Abalogun (Death on the Nile), Jess Hong (Brokenwood), Marlo Kelly (Dare Me), Eve Lindley and newcomer Zine Tseng.
The first thing you notice about this cast is that it’s relatively large and mostly international, which doesn’t happen so often in supposedly mainstream American productions.
We do not yet know in detail who the characters are. The only identifiable character is Ye Wenjie, played by Zine Tseng, whose main story takes place in the 1960s. To complicate matters, in the book the characters overwhelmingly are Chinese, but the Netflix adaptation seems to have changed the ethnicity of many characters.
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Who created it?
You can say what you want about the final season of Game of Thrones, but no one can say that David Benioff And DB Weiss have not created one of the most important and ambitious series in the history of television, full of intense and memorable scenes. For this new production, the duo is teaming up with Alexander Woo, known among other things for having been the showrunner of season 2 of The Terror. In an official press release, Benioff spoke about the upcoming project:
“Liu Cixin’s trilogy is the most ambitious sci-fi series we’ve read. She takes readers on a journey from the 1960s to the end of time, from life on our pale blue dot to the far reaches of the universe. We look forward to spending the next few years of our lives bringing this project to life for audiences around the world.“
Other prestigious names are added to the list on the production side. Rian Johnson will serve as executive producer with partner and associate Ram Bergman. The novel’s author, Liu Cixin, and the book’s English translator, Ken Liu, are hired as consulting producers.
As for Brad Pitt’s Plan B Entertainment and Rosamund Pike’s Primitive Streak, they are also involved in the production. Plan B has previously produced Okja for Netflix, and Primitive Streak specializes in adapting high-profile international literary properties.
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What to expect ?
Probably to a rather complex series. The three-body problem by Liu Cixin belongs to the demanding genre of hard science fiction and has won numerous awards abroad, the Chinese Science Fiction Galaxy Award, the most prestigious science fiction award in China.
The series chronicles humanity’s first contact with extraterrestrial intelligence. However, describing it in this way fails to capture the full breadth of history, which involves the entire human race in government conspiracies, hidden world wars, clandestine scientific organizations and mind-boggling scientific mysteries that border on the supernatural.
According to its creators, the story takes a hyper-realistic, science-based approach to answering the questions: “What would human contact with an alien species look like?” and “To what point can we speak of extraterrestrials?”… A whole program.