'3 Body Problem' creators tease 'wild' second season
Netflix's 3 Body Problem—which debuted on the streamer in March—has been hailed as the next big thing in sci-fi TV. After a thunderous first season, the show's creators have hinted that the "story gets really wild in the best possible way" in the subsequent season. Notably, the streamer has not yet officially renewed the series. The show, a collaboration between Alexander Woo and Game of Thrones creators D.B. Weiss and David Benioff, has been a challenging, large-scale project.
Makers are figuring things out currently
At the Deadline Contenders TV event, Weiss discussed how they have been approaching the second season. "This kind of eases you into the world of the story but the story gets really wild in the best possible way." "With something that's that wild, there are a lot of choices to be made and a lot of things to be figured out. We've been putting our heads together to figuring them out recently, especially the past couple months."
Weiss on what drew the creators to the series
Weiss further explained the team's approach, "You don't want people to be pushing pause and hitting Wikipedia every five minutes. You could do the version of that that makes people do that but it pulls people out of it." "In the book, he's [the author] explaining all this stuff to you anyway in writing. It was a challenge that was ultimately what drew us to the project to begin with."
Casting challenges and successes for '3 Body Problem'
Casting actors for the multiple characters presented another challenge. Benioff revealed that Benedict Wong and John Bradley were their top choices for casting. Despite a shaky international Zoom call audition due to poor connectivity, Zine Tseng successfully secured her role. The additional cast includes Jovan Adepo, Rosalind Chao, Liam Cunningham, Jonathan Pryce, and Ben Schnetzer, among others.
How the makers made the series 'global'
The Netflix adaptation of Liu Cixin's The Three-Body Problem book trilogy understandably required some changes, including a focus on primarily English-speaking characters. Co-creator Woo explained this decision by stating, "Out of necessity we needed to be the cast mostly speaking English." He further clarified that this change allowed them to tell a more universal story about humanity facing an existential threat.
