Sci-fi fans rejoice, as Netflix have announced that their popular dystopian series 3 Body Problem will return to the platform, for a further two series at least. The first series, made up of eight episodes, was released back in March, quickly finding success with Netflix’s subscriber base.
Given Netflix’s penchant for cancelling unprofitable series and abandoning projects part-way through production, fans of 3 Body Problem were understandably worried that the series would not be allowed to come to its natural conclusion. Thankfully, though, Netflix announced on May 31st that the programme would continue for a further two seasons.
Writing on social media, Netflix shared that “3 Body Problem will tell the complete story of the seminal book series in Seasons 2 & 3”. The story of the series is based upon the book series Remembrance of Earth’s Past by noted Chinese author Liu Cixin. Previously, the series was adapted for the screen in the Chinese series Three-Body in 2023.
The American series was created by the core trio of David Benioff, D. B. Weiss and Alexander Woo. Within a press release, Weiss explained, “We included a lot of what we loved from the [novels by Cixin Liu] in season one, but the vast majority of reasons we wanted to make this show are in season two”.
“We always wanted to get to the final page of the third book,” he continued, “and it’s really, really thrilling to us that we will get to do just that”. At the time of writing, the streaming service has not announced a solid date for the beginning of production, let alone a release date for the second series.
The programme follows the exploits of scientist Ye Wenjie – played by Rosalind Chao – who sees her father murdered during the Chinese Cultural Revolution in the 1960s. Her decisions back in the 1960s while working at a military base then have a direct effect on scientists within the modern day.
3 Body Problem also stars the likes of Jonathan Pryce, Benedict Wong, Jess Hong, Mario Kelly, Eiza Gonzalez and Jovan Adepo. Upon its initial release, season one shot to number two in the Netflix rankings of TV shows in the US.
