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Mar 21
Charles Pulliam-Moore
Netflix’s 3 Body Problem adaptation channels the book’s spirit but not its brilliance
Image: Netflix
In his 2008 sci-fi novel The Three-Body Problem, Cixin Liu created a fascinating world where cutting-edge particle physics, VR gaming, and Chinese history played crucial roles in shaping humanity’s response to an imminent planet-wide threat. It also seemed unfilmable. The depth of the book’s ideas about cultural memory and the complexity of its central mystery made The Three-Body Problem feel like a story that could only work on the page.
That hasn’t stopped streamers from trying, and last year, Tencent debuted its own live-action, episodic take on Liu’s book. Netflix spent a fortune putting 3 Body Problem in the hands of executive producers David Benioff, D. B. Weiss, and Alexander Woo. Their adaptation is leaner and more diverse than the book in a way that makes it a very different kind of story. Often, it’s a good one — and very occasionally a great one — that works as an introductory crash course to the basic ideas key to understanding the larger concepts that shape Liu’s later books.
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May 15
Ash Parrish
Netflix renews 3 Body Problem for second season
Image: Netflix
3 Body Problem is getting a second season. Netflix announced the news that its adaptation of Cixin Liu’s award-winning sci-fi trilogy is getting more episodes, with David Benioff, D.B. Weiss, and Alexander Woo returning as executive producers and writers.
3 Body Problem follows a group of scientists as they struggle with the realization that humanity isn’t the only species in the universe and that its nearest neighbors are far more technologically advanced and very mean. It stars an ensemble cast featuring Liam Cunningham, Rosalind Chao, Zine Tseng, and Benedict Wong. Though the 3 Body Problem book trilogy spans several centuries, through cryogenic shenanigans, most characters from the present-day timeline should remain throughout the story, meaning we should see a lot of the cast return for season 2.
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Apr 4
Ash Parrish
3 Body Problem stars on the show’s big question: would you push the button?
Image: Ed Miller / Netflix
One thing that confounds me after reading Cixin Liu’s The Three-Body Problem and watching its Netflix adaptation is a simple button.
Spoilers for 3 Body Problem to follow.
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Mar 25
Charles Pulliam-Moore
The creators of 3 Body Problem want to have ‘a back and forth’ with the book
Image: Ed Miller / Netflix
Between its expanded, more ethnically diverse cast and its more advanced take on virtual reality gaming, Netflix’s new 3 Body Problem series unfolds in a very different way than the book it’s adapting. Cixin Liu’s novel is so dense and internal dialogue-driven that it was widely thought to be unadaptable for the screen. Changes are almost always necessary when translating stories as complex as 3 Body Problem’s across mediums (and in this case, languages as well). But when I recently spoke with executive producers David Benioff, D.B. Weiss, and Alexander Woo ahead of 3 Body Problem’s premiere, they said that, while they always knew their story needed to be different, as they began reimagining narrative beats, they realized that “there was going to have to be a back and forth” between the show and Liu’s book.
In Liu’s book, a very small number of brilliant Chinese physicists are left to their own devices to figure out why scientists around the world are killing themselves and what’s causing the world’s particle accelerators to malfunction in inexplicable ways. Though the book’s characters start off working in isolation, the arrival of a mysterious VR game gradually pulls them into one another’s orbits. And as they grow closer, the terrifying truth of what the entire world is up against becomes all too clear.
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Mar 23
Andrew Webster
3 Body Problem VR headset review: magical tech in need of more apps
Image: Netflix
Arthur C. Clarke famously said that “any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic,” and that’s never been more true than with the 3 Body Problem VR headset. It’s so far ahead of everything else on the market that it doesn’t seem possible. There’s really no doubt: this is the best way to experience virtual reality. Sadly, there’s far too little software to take advantage of all of that advanced tech; at launch, there’s only a single app available. And even though that one app is a game that could alter the fate of mankind forever, that doesn’t quite nudge the headset into “must buy” territory.
But let’s start with that hardware because it is indeed incredible. It’s a sleek metallic headset that’s so light you can barely feel it at all. It’s completely wireless, and unlike, say, the Apple Vision Pro, it seems to work for just about everyone right out of the box. No fussing around with visual settings or specially-fitted seals. Just put it on and go. There are also no loading times, and the battery life appears to be infinite. How they managed to squeeze all of that inside such a tiny device is baffling. I’m eagerly awaiting the moment iFixit gets their hands on it.
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Mar 7
Charles Pulliam-Moore
3 Body Problem’s final trailer is a prelude to war.
The latest (and seemingly final) trailer for Netflix’s upcoming 3 Body Problem adaptation doesn’t quite spell out exactly what kind of mysterious threat plunges humanity as a whole into a panic. But it’s pretty clear that the Earth’s most brilliant minds are gearing up for a war they might not be able to win when 3 Body Problem debuts on March 21st.
Feb 9
Andrew Webster
Peaco*ck will stream the Chinese adaptation of The Three-Body Problem
Another adaptation of Liu Cixin’s The Three-Body Problem will be streaming for English audiences. While Netflix’s 3 Body Problem is set to premiere on March 21st, today, Peaco*ck announced that it has acquired rights to the original Chinese adaptation, dubbed simply Three-Body. And it’s coming very soon — the series premieres on February 10th.
Three-Body was produced by Tencent and originally premiered in China last year, and the Peaco*ck version will be available in the original Chinese with English subtitles. Given that they’re adaptations, 3 Body Problem and Three-Body will follow the same story, but the Chinese adaptation appears to be much more expansive; it spans 30 episodes in total, compared to eight episodes for the Netflix series.
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Feb 7
Charles Pulliam-Moore
The Three-Body Problem is getting a new audiobook release just in time for Netflix’s show
The Verge
In Netflix’s new adaptation of Cixin Liu’s novel The Three-Body Problem, actress Rosalind Chao portrays one of the brilliant minds mobilized into action by the presence of a threat with the potential to wipe out humanity. But in Macmillan’s forthcoming The Three-Body Problem audiobook recording, Chao will bring the entire world of Liu’s novel to life with the sound of her voice.
Ahead of the March 21st debut of Netflix’s 3 Body Problem, Macmillan Audio has tapped Chao to narrate its new recording of The Three-Body Problem — the first book in Liu’s Remembrance of Earth’s Past trilogy chronicling the story of how humanity responds after making first contact with aliens. In a press release about the new audiobook, Chao said that, after playing her character Ye Wenjie on the small screen, she enjoyed the creative challenge of embodying all of The Three-Body Problem’s distinct players, and said that the experience as a whole was “truly enriching.”
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Jan 10
Charles Pulliam-Moore
3 Body Problem author Cixin Liu is very into Netflix’s spin on his sci-fi epic.
Netflix’s adaptation of 3 Body Problem from David Benioff, D.B. Weiss, and Alexander Woo is going to feature more than a few major differences from Cixin Liu’s original sci-fi novel.
But in a new piece from The Hollywood Reporter, Woo says he and his collaborators received Liu’s blessing to adapt the show for an international audience “in the way that we saw fit,” which could be a sign of interesting things to come.
‘Game of Thrones’ Creators’ Wild Road to Their Biggest Gamble Yet: Netflix’s ‘3 Body Problem’
[The Hollywood Reporter]
Jan 9
Andrew Webster
Netflix’s new 3 Body Problem trailer is all about the mystery
We’re inching ever closer to 3 Body Problem’s premiere on Netflix, and today, that means another glimpse at the sci-fi adaptation. Whereas the previous trailer focused on the incredibly immersive virtual reality game at the core of the story, the latest clip focuses on something different: the mystery. Basically, a whole bunch of scientists have gone missing, and Benedict Wong’s character is trying to figure out what it all means.
The show, of course, is based on the novel by Liu Cixin (which was just the first part of a trilogy), and Netflix describes the premise thusly:
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Nov 10, 2023
Charles Pulliam-Moore
New teaser for Netflix’s 3 Body Problem series will make you want to play the game
It remains to be seen just how much of the fascinating, winding complexity of Liu Cixin’s The Three-Body Problem ends up making it into Netflix’s upcoming adaptation of the novel from co-creators Alexander Woo, D.B. Weiss, and David Benioff. But in a new clip from the show that’s just dropped as part of Netflix’s Geeked Week showcase, it looks like 3 Body Problem (that’s how Netflix is spelling it) is going to get one of its most important worldbuilding elements very right in a way that makes the story’s deeper mystery interesting to watch unfold.
While the new teaser clip debuted during Geeked Week doesn’t really broach the way 3 Body Problem’s story delves into China’s past and what becomes of humanity at one of the most pivotal moments in modern history, it does establish one of the meanings of its title.
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Jun 17, 2023
Andrew Webster
Netflix’s 3 Body Problem starts streaming in January — check out the first trailer
As promised, one of big highlights of Netflix’s Tudum event was our first look at the streamer’s much-anticipated adaptation of author Cixin Liu’s The Three-Body Problem. The teaser trailer provides just a brief — but still incredibly impressive — glimpse at the sci-fi epic, based on the trilogy of books. It also includes an important tidbit of info: the series will start streaming in January 2024.
The adaptation was first announced in 2020, with Game of Thrones showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss leading the project. (Glass Onion and Last Jedi director Rian Johnson, meanwhile, is among the team of producers.) If you’re new to Liu’s work — the series is called Remembrance of Earth’s Past, and The Three-Body Problem is the first book. Here’s the official synopsis:
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Sep 28, 2022
Charles Pulliam-Moore
Netflix doesn’t seem to know how to talk about its 3 Body Problem show
Image: Netflix
Though Cixin Liu’s The Three-Body Problem is one of the most fascinating and thought-provoking pieces of speculative fiction to come out in recent years, you wouldn’t know it judging from the way that Netflix has (barely) been talking about 3 Body Problem, its forthcoming adaptation of the novel from Alexander Woo, D.B. Weiss, and David Benioff
During this year’s Tudum, essentially all of Netflix’s larger profile projects due out in the coming months, like Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio, and The Witcher’s third season, were spotlighted in segments that gave you a sense of what sort of energy their respective creative teams were working with. But when it came to the segment focused on Netflix’s forthcoming adaptation of Cixin Liu’s The Three-Body Problem, Tudum got a little stiff and curiously boilerplate-y in a way that did little to say much about or hype up the show.
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Sep 1, 2020
Nick Statt
Game of Thrones showrunners are adapting The Three-Body Problem as first major Netflix project
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge
Netflix on Tuesday announced that David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, the showrunners of HBO’s Game of Thrones, are working on an adaptation of Chinese science fiction author Liu Cixin’s The Three-Body Problem trilogy as their first major project since signing exclusive contracts with the streaming service last year.
“Liu Cixin’s trilogy is the most ambitious science-fiction series we’ve read, taking readers on a journey from the 1960s until the end of time, from life on our pale blue dot to the distant fringes of the universe. We look forward to spending the next years of our lives bringing this to life for audiences around the world,” reads the duo’s joint statement.
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Jun 26, 2019
Andrew Liptak
An animated adaptation of Chinese sci-fi novel The Three-Body Problem is in development
Image: Tor Books
China’s biggest science fiction novel, The Three-Body Problem, is being developed for a potential television series, according to CX Live. If it happens, it’ll come after the massive success of another big sci-fi adaptation from the country, The Wandering Earth.
Chinese entertainment company YooZoo Entertainment holds the rights to the series, and it’s apparently working on an adaptation of the book. CX Live discovered a publicity form submitted to the Chinese government that lists the production details of the proposed series, which will apparently run for 24 episodes and could begin shooting this September. A source confirmed to The Verge that the form is legitimate and that the company has been working on developing the series. Should the series begin filming, this development would be the latest step forward in adapting the novels for film or television.
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Oct 19, 2018
Andrew Liptak
How a fan fiction for Cixin Liu’s Three-Body Problem became an official novel
Graphic by Michele Doying / The Verge
Since the publication of The Three-Body Problem, the first installment of Cixin Liu’s epic science fiction trilogy about making contact with an alien civilization, the series has gone on to earn the Chinese author enormous acclaim and legions of fans worldwide — including President Barack Obama. Next year, Tor Books will publish a new novel set in the same world, titled The Redemption of Time, but it won’t be by Liu. Instead, the book is written by Baoshu, an ardent fan of the series who originally published it online as a novel-length fan fiction story — one that became so popular that the trilogy’s publisher decided to release it as an official novel.
Liu first serialized The Three-Body Problem in China’s biggest science fiction magazine, Science Fiction World, in 2006, and published it as a novel two years later. It was followed by two sequels — The Dark Forest and Death’s End, which came in 2008 and 2010, respectively. In China, it became a massive phenomenon that expanded to the rest of the world in 2014, when the book was published in English for the first time with a translation by Ken Liu, and went on to win the Hugo Award for Best Novel the following year.
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