Netflix's long-awaited adaptation of The Three Body Problem, the award-winning Chinese sci-fi novel from Liu Cixin, finally has a (rough) release date: January 2024. The show is produced by David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, the same creative leadership behind Game of Thrones, as well as Alexander Woo, whose previous credits include Terror and True Blood. In the trailer above, legendary astronomer Carl Sagan narrates a cryptic tease at the tense world of the story, warning that, "There are those who say we should not inquire too closely into who else might be living in that darkness."
According to Collider, the new series is expected to have 24 hour-long episodes — which is pretty wild, considering the usual Netflix production model, but also might be fitting, given the dense material from which they have to draw.
The trailer doesn't reveal much, though it is undoubtedly epic. It leans heavily into the stunning CGI visuals, too — though it is a bit misleading, considering that (very mild spoilers!) all of these scenes literally take place in a video game that people play within the story.
The highly-anticipated show has not been without its controversies, however, from the attempted murder of one of the show's Chinese producers, to a Republican effort to cancel the series in a virtue-signalling response to some (legitimately) ugly comments that the author made about the largely-Muslim Uighur ethnic minority group, who have (legitimately) been systematically interned and oppressed by the Chinese government.
The Netflix adaptation of The Three Body Problem should not be confused with the serialized podcast version of The Three Body Problem, nor the recent Chinese live-action TV adaptation of The Three Body Problem, or the other recent animated Chinese adaptation of The Three Body Problem.
