On March 21st, David Benioff, D.B. Weiss, and Alexander Woo launched the first season of their critically acclaimed sci-fi series 3 Body Problem. Based on Liu Cixin’s popular novel of the same name, the story had fans invested from the outset. Following a successful launch, the creators turn their thoughts to season two.
The story follows Ye Wenjie, an astrophysicist who witnesses her father’s murder during a fight in the Chinese Cultural Revolution. She subsequently joins the military to work at a secret compound, where she opts to respond to contact from an alien planet. But has she opened Pandora’s Box?
As fans discuss the possible progression into season two, Weiss has thrown a few teasers into the mix. However, it is worth noting that, at present, Netflix has not officially renewed 3 Body Problem. “This kind of eases you into the world of the story, but the story gets really wild in the best possible way,” Weiss told the board at the recent Deadline Contenders TV event.
He continued, noting how sci-fi and fantasy realms allow the creative mind to wander into uncharted territory. “With something that’s that wild, there are a lot of choices to be made and a lot of things to be figured out,” he said. “We’ve been putting our heads together to figuring them out recently, especially the past couple months.”
As movie fans may have noticed while watching Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar and Inception, a sci-fi plot can become very confusing. Weiss and his fellow creators are aware of the risks of overcomplication, so while they intend to make the second season “wild”, they hope to maintain a straightforward narrative.
The perfect balance is a narrative that rewards the viewer but is conducive to a fluid viewing experience. “You don’t want people to be pushing pause and hitting Wikipedia every five minutes,” he explained. “You could do the version of that that makes people do that, but it pulls people out of it.”
While the creators followed Cixin’s novel for the first season, those who have read the book can expect a faithful adaptation that holds a few visual feasts and surprises along the way. “In the book, [Cixin is] explaining all this stuff to you anyway in writing,” Weiss noted. “It was a challenge that was ultimately what drew us to the project to begin with.”
Watch the trailer for 3 Body Problem season one below.
