The series is very different to the original novels.
If there’s one thing about to hit fans of the Three Body Problem novels when they watch the Netflix adaptation, it’s that it’s very different.
The characters are different, the setting is different, and we’re completely taken out of China for the most part in favour of scenes in modern-day London and New York – which might seem strange when you consider how important China is to the novels.
However, creators David Benioff, DB Weiss and Alexander Woo have revealed that Cixin Liu, the author behind the iconic series (and apparently a huge Game of Thrones fan, helpfully), actually approved all of their major changes from the very beginning.
Speaking exclusively to RadioTimes.com, Woo said: “We had an early meeting in 2020, during the pandemic, so it was over Zoom, with Cixin Liu. And he recognised a number of the challenges, which is not always the case with the novelist, that the novel form and the television form are fundamentally different.
“He knew that adaptations would have to be made, he recognised that some of the male characters might be better served being female and he recognised that, because we were doing the English language adaptation, there would also be changes made in terms of setting and characters.
“The opportunity that it afforded us was that was that we could tell a story about humanity facing a global existential threat from an extraterrestrial civilisation, and if we’re going to represent humanity, we should represent all of humanity.
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‘That that led to the design of the cast being people who are representative of all of the world, with an African American character, Latin American character, characters of Oceania, South Asia, East Asia, Europe, and just about everywhere. That, I think, better represents the world than if we had kept everyone in the People’s Republic of China.
“Also it’d be strange if everyone was in China was speaking English, that would be a little a little odd as well!
“However, there were still some characters that at their core embodied a philosophy that was very much Chinese and that’s why we kept the characters of Ye [played by Rosalind Chao and Zine Tseng] and her story almost entirely intact, and the characters of Da Shi [played by Benedict Wong] and Jin [played by Jess Hong], who are Chinese diaspora in this case, but still a lot of who they are at their core is based on something very Chinese, so we retained those while globalising the rest of the cast.”
Woo added: “The generosity of spirit with which he entrusted his work to us to adapt was heartening and surprising – although the first thing he said was, ‘I’m a huge fan Game of Thrones,’ so I think we were off to a flying start there.”
Netflix’s 3 Body Problem follows a close-knit group of scientists, dubbed the Oxford Five, as the laws of nature begin to turn upside down. They have to team up with a no-nonsense detective to fend off an unknown but very real threat – but fighting an enemy like this is far from simple.
3 Body Problem is available to stream now on Netflix. Sign up for Netflix from £4.99 a month. Netflix is also available on Sky Glass and Virgin Media Stream.
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