The ambitious and expensive sci-fi streaming series “3 Body Problem” is the latest event series from Netflix that the streaming giants hope will be their next landmark show. Placing a big bet on the series, Netflix recruited the duo behind “Game of Thrones” to help oversee it, and it sounds like ideas for a second season are already cooking behind the scenes. Collider recently spoke with ‘GOT’ alumni D.B. Weiss, David Benioff, and Alexander Woo (“True Blood”), the show’s three showrunners, during the SXSW Festival in Austin, and the trio says that the first two seasons of the show will be closely based on author Cixin Liu’s trilogy of books and are further along than many would assume.
READ MORE: ‘3 Body Problem’ Review: Benioff & Weiss’ Sci-Fi Series Plays Like An Overstuffed & Underwhelming Mystery Box Thriller
“For season two, we’ve got better than a rough idea. We’re much farther along with that plan than rough idea stages,” Weiss revealed. “From there on out, it becomes, you know, the farther away things get, the hazier your view of them is. But there, in the third book, there are so many amazing landmarks, in terms of scenes and situations and events that we can see pretty clearly, that we know, we’re not completely sure how our characters are gonna get to that place, but we know they gotta get to that place. Because that place and that place and that place are the reason we [picked] these books up and wanted to adapt them in the first place.”
Our review says “3 Body Problem” is difficult to explain succinctly, but basically, it’s a mystery and geopolitical alien invasion thriller about a group of scientists who have to help ward off an extraterrestrial threat.
Of course, it’s hard not to imagine that multiple seasons were already baked into the show’s development and the exclusivity deal the streamer signed with Weiss and Benioff (rumored to be worth hundreds of millions of dollars with one figure said to be around $200 million). Shows of this scope and cost tend to have some greater blueprint or map hashed out, so it wouldn’t surprise if Netflix intended to keep investing in the series, even if its viewership ratings might not match the threshold of what they would typically discontinue if it weren’t a big “hit” by their metrics.
Netflix’s synopsis for “3 Body Problem” reads as follows:
A young woman’s fateful decision in 1960s China reverberates across space and time to a group of brilliant scientists in the present day. As the laws of nature unravel before their eyes, five former colleagues reunite to confront the greatest threat in humanity’s history.
“3 Body Problem” premieres on March 21, and we’ll likely get official word from Netflix soon after its premiere if the pricy project, reported to be around $20 million per episode, gets more episodes.