‘3 Body Problem’ Creators Reveal How Many Seasons They Need to Tell the Complete Story
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David Benioff, D.B. Weiss & Alexander Woo lay out their plans for the Netflix series & talk about the importance of subverting audience expectations.
3 BODY PROBLEM sxsw interview D.B. Weiss, Alexander Woo, and David Benioff
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The Big Picture
Collider's Steve Weintraub interviews Game of Thrones creators David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, and 3 Body Problem screenwriter Alexander Woo.
In this interview they talk about their approach to more seasons, where they are in the development of Season 2, challenging sequences, the changes from book to screen, and tons more.
3 Body Problem is a sci-fi series based on Liu Cixin's bestselling trilogy made for Netflix, that takes science fiction to a global level with an ensemble cast.
Game of Thrones creators David Benioff and D.B. Weiss are taking their epic book adaptation skills from one major streamer to another with Netflix’s upcoming 3 Body Problem. As high fantasy as the HBO series was, this one takes science fiction to a global level, based on the bestselling trilogy by Liu Cixin. The show celebrated its world premiere at SXSW, where Collider’s Steve Weintraub sat down with the showrunners and series writer Alexander Woo (True Blood) to pick their brains on the behind-the-scenes of helming something so massive, and what the future of the series looks like.
When the showrunners and writer stopped by Collider’s media studio, the trio were forthcoming with their hopes to continue exploring this trilogy. Times are trying for fans of TV series on streamers, but after the success of their previous work, Benioff likens Cixin's 3 Body Problem to George R.R. Martin's "surprising" material. Of their plans to continue, and what fans can expect after the Season 1 finale, he goes on to say:
"There are three books. The first season roughly follows the arc of the first book, and the second season would probably roughly follow the second book. The third book is massive. It's twice as long, I think, as the other two books, so maybe that's one season, maybe it's two. But I think we'd need at least three, maybe four seasons to tell the whole story. It's a beautiful ending. I think all three of us thought that the last page of Liu Cixin’s epic was maybe the best final image we'd encountered in a sci-fi saga like this. It's incredibly moving and mind-blowing, and so we’re desperate to get to the end. That means, hopefully, if enough people watch it that Netflix will renew us and give us a couple more years."
What Is '3 Body Problem' About & Who's In It?
3 Body Problem ｜ Final Trailer ｜ Netflix
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Beginning with the catalyst in 1960s China, 3 Body Problem explores how one woman’s fateful decision had a ripple effect that spanned across time. The show features the Oxford 5 played by John Bradley, Jess Hong, Jovan Adepo, Eiza González, and Alex Sharp. It also stars Liam Cunningham, Benedict Wong, Zine Tseng, and Rosalind Chao.
Check out the full interview in the video above for more on Benioff and Weiss' plan to move forward, where they are in the development of Season 2, creating relatable characters we care about, the changes from the book to the screen, the reasons behind them, and tons more. You can also read the full transcript below.
Netflix's 3 Body Problem poster
‘3 Body Problem’ Creators Planned for Seasons 2 and 3, But It Won’t Be Quick
Eiza Gonzalez in 3 Body Problem
Image by Federico Napoli
COLLIDER: So when you went to Netflix and said you wanted to do this, was your idea at the beginning for a three-season plan, a five-season plan? How much had you guys sort of thought about ultimately where this is all going?
DAVID BENIOFF: Well, there are three books. The first season roughly follows the arc of the first book. The second season would probably roughly follow the second book. The third book is massive. It’s twice as long, I think, as the other two books. So maybe that’s one season, maybe it’s two. But, you know, I think we’d need at least three, maybe four seasons to tell the whole story. And it’s a beautiful ending. I think all three of us thought that the last page of Liu Cixin's epic was maybe the best final image we’d encountered in a sci-fi saga like this. It’s just incredibly moving and mind-blowing. So, we were desperate to get to the end, and that means, hopefully, enough people watch it that Netflix will renew us and give us a couple more years.
If you get renewed, how quickly can you get going on doing more?
ALEXANDER WOO: We’re doing it now. I mean, we screened the episode last night, and then I went back to my hotel room and did a little bit of work.
BENIOFF: Oh wow, you did? That’s impressive. Well, he doesn’t drink, so it’s a little bit easier.
WOO: It helps. [Laughs] It keeps on going because if we had to wait around, we’d be months behind.
But that’s what I mean.
WOO: We’re as anxious to get the show out there as everyone else.
Look, there’s no doubt in my mind. I would be stunned if you guys don’t get to make another season. Do you have a rough idea for Season 2?
D.B. WEISS: For Season 2, we’ve got better than a rough idea. We’re much further along with that plan than rough idea stages. The farther away things get, the hazier your view of them is. But 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 is the reason we picked these books up and wanted to adapt them in the first place.
If Netflix were to do one of those things that they did with Avatar [The Last Air Bender]where it’s a two-season pickup, would that be better for you, or do you like the idea of just doing one season at a time?
WEISS: You can really only do one. It’s a very labor-intensive show, and it doesn’t get less labor-intensive. It doesn’t get easier to make, it gets harder to make. So, I think it’s hard to see eight episodes of something you like and then have it disappear for a long period of time, but it’s really kind of the only way we can imagine doing it is one season at a time.
BENIOFF: That said, if they greenlit a Season 2 and 3...
WEISS: I wouldn’t say no. That’s a decision that’s made in rooms we’re not in. I don’t know if it’s the kind of thing they would do for a show like this, but that would be great.
How did you decide on 8 episodes? Was that your decision or was that a Netflix decision?
BENIOFF: That was our decision. And actually, when we were negotiating the rights to the books, we had to kind of figure out an episode count. At some point, I think we thought, “Maybe we can do it in 6.” As we started to break down the season we realized that we have to get here by this, and it just worked out to 8. There was no mandate from above, it was just, “These are the events we have, and it’s going to be about 60 pages for each…"
How Netflix's '3 Body Problem' Is Different From the Books
Custom image of John Bradley, Eiza Gonzalez, Jovan Adepo, Alex Sharp & Jess Hong for 3 Body Problem at SXSW
Image by Jefferson Chacon
I think the reason why I responded so positively to the show, and I think why audiences are going to love it, is that you have the spectacle, but ultimately, all the characters on the show are people I cared about. I felt like I knew these people. Can you talk about that aspect of making sure these are compelling characters, especially the Oxford 5 and their relationship?
BENIOFF: That’s great to hear.
WOO: From the very beginning, in all of our collective experiences of making TV shows and adaptations of books, also, the character is the heart of a television series. That's why you want to watch the next episode, and that's why you want to watch the next episode after that. That's why you want to go from season to season to season. Before you know it, these people are part of your lives for a decade, if not more sometimes, and you feel for them like they're your actual friends. The books themselves are structured in such a way that a lot of the main characters don't intersect, and even though they exist contemporaneously, they don't meet each other… It was crucial for us to put all the pieces out on the chess board from the very beginning, and that's the genesis of the Oxford 5. All our main characters have a past together, have relationships with each other, [are] in conflict with each other, [are] in love with one another. Those are all things that make you care about them so that when you go two, three seasons in, you're engaged, you're on that journey with them.
When you saw the shooting schedule, what day did you have circled in terms of, “Oh, my god, I can’t wait to film this," and what day was circled in terms of, “How the F are we going to film this?”
WEISS: The “how the F” days, it’s never one day. It’s a sequence. There’s a sequence in Episode 5 that, even before there was a schedule, was, “How does one go about showing that on screen?" There are actually a couple of sequences in Episode 5, and the end of 5, too, where it’s like, “Don’t know what that looks like. I hope we can get somebody to get an image of it that jives with the feeling of it that we have in our minds." Some of the stuff that we were most excited to film, there’s a scene, for me, with Jonathan Pryce where he’s talking to an old dictaphone with a disembodied voice coming out of it.
There was a scene, it was adapted from something that happened in the books, and from the moment I read it in the books it was something that I really, really– I didn’t know Jonathan Pryce was going to be in the show, but whoever we were going to have in that role, I really wanted to see that scene. Once Jonathan agreed to do it, I really wanted to see that scene. It’s basically, it’s not a monologue, it’s a conversation with one actor on camera that, visually, is like the antithesis of all the big “ka-pow” set-piece moments, but it’s also one of the things that, for me, epitomize what was so different and so wonderful about this story and these books, and what set it apart from any other science fiction books I’ve read in a long time.
Jonathan Pryce as Mike Evans in episode 104 of 3 Body Problem
Image via Netflix
I watch a lot of television, a lot of movies, it’s my job, and I can truthfully say I’ve never seen anything like this show on TV. I can imagine that’s one of the reasons that pulled you guys in, but I’m very curious. The episodes are about an hour each, there’s one or two that are a little shorter. Did you guys end up with a lot of deleted scenes, or not really?
BENIOFF: Yes. We did. [Laughs] We did. It’s interesting because we didn’t do a pilot this time. We just started and began shooting the season straight out, and there was never really a break or anything, which meant we were happy at the time that we didn’t have to shoot a pilot. We didn’t have to prove ourselves. Netflix gave us a full season, but it also meant you were kind of learning as you went along. You’re learning about the actors as you’re watching them in scenes for the first time. You’re learning, like, “Oh, crap. That thing that seemed like it made sense on page isn’t making sense.” So, we got to the very end, and, watching it through, we realized we had made mistakes, just writing mistakes. Certain characters weren’t established well enough. Certain plotlines weren’t established.
So, we came back to Netflix and said, "We have a bunch more stuff that we want to do. There are certain things we want to take out because they’re not working, and there are certain things we want to add in, and it’s going to be kind of expensive." And they let us do it. So we’re very grateful that we got the opportunity to go back because I think it transformed the show. The show as it existed, like, a year ago, it’s just vastly different, and I think inferior. I think anyone in a first season, maybe not like the Vince Gilligan’s of the world, but for, like, mortals, you’re going to make mistakes. Especially in a first season, as the show is finding its feet. So there are scenes, some of which are actually good scenes on their own, they just didn’t work for the greater good of the season.
I know that the plan was originally to have the show out sooner, and then the strike happened, and then you were talking about the additional photography. Was it months of filming? Was it like a month?
WEISS: It was two days in a bar on Pico Boulevard. [Laughs]
Time out. So the whole addition was one scene?
WEISS: It was one scene, and it’s not a big flashy scene. It’s not a set-piece scene. It was just a scene where we had it very well-acted and performed, and shot with two of the actors. As we were cutting, we realized there was a better way to achieve what that scene was achieving in a way that was, frankly, a lot more fun to achieve what that scene was achieving. If it had been a scene in the middle of Episode 4, we maybe would have just kind of, you know. There’s always Monday morning quarterbacking going on with your own work constantly, but this one was in the first 20 minutes of the pilot, and we just thought it was really important to come out of the gate as strong as we could. So we made that argument to Netflix, and it wasn’t really an argument. They kind of shockingly said, “Okay, that’s fine.” And we said that, "Because of the situation in Hollywood at the moment, this leads to an uncertain release date," depending on when the strikes ended, and they didn’t flinch at it. They let us go. They committed to it, and we shot it and cut it in, and it did push the release date by a couple of months, but I think it made the show a better show.
3 Body Problem Creators Discuss the Importance of Subverting Audience Expectations
John Bradley as Jack Rooney in episode 102 of 3 Body Problem
Image via Netflix
One of the things that Game of Thrones did exceptionally well was doing things that the audience did not see coming, and you have incorporated that with 3 Body Problem. As I’ve mentioned, I watch a lot of television, and there were many things that happened in this show where I was like, “Wait, what?” Can you talk about the importance of keeping the audience off-balance and not giving them exactly what they’re expecting?
BENIOFF: It comes back to the source material, right? Certainly George R.R. Martin's books were incredibly surprising again and again and again. One of the things we really loved about these science fiction novels is they don't start seeming like science fiction at all. You begin the first book, The Three-Body Problem, and it’s got a science fiction cover, and someone told me it’s got something to do with aliens. I start reading it, and it's set in the Cultural Revolution. You start in Beijing in the 1960s. For many, many pages, it's back there in the past in China and there's nothing science fiction happening, and you start to think, "I'm pretty sure this is a book about aliens," but it really draws you into that character and her story. As Dan said a little while ago, there could be a whole novel about this character that's not a science fiction novel, that’s actually, I guess, a literary novel or historical novel about this woman's journey. But then something happens. She goes to a hilltop and learns how to do something that changes the universe. So, one thing that was really surprising to me that I think we tried to emulate with the show is just that it doesn’t feel like science fiction at first. It takes a while until you get that. You’re not starting out on the planet Zurgon watching the Zurgonots launch their, uh, Zurgo missiles.
WEISS: Season 2 will begin and end on Zurgon. It’s completely on the planet Zurgon.
I don’t know if you guys want to add anything else, but I’ll just say that when I was watching Episode 2, I was like, “What the F show am I watching?” Because there’s the introduction of video games and this other stuff, and I’m just like, “What am I watching?” I don’t know if you want to touch on that.
WOO: I think it’s one of the virtues of the book and one of the virtues of the show. In trying to preserve the spirit of the books, you’re constantly a little wrong-footed the whole time. It starts a historical fiction, and then it’s a murder mystery, and then suddenly we’re in science fiction. How does all that tie together? There’s a video game in the middle of all of it, and how does that connect to everything else? I think that’s part of the intrigue in watching all of those big pieces of the jigsaw puzzle come together in a really satisfying way is one of the pleasures of the show, I hope.
A custom image of Emma D'Arcy as Rhaenyra Targaryen, Emilia Clarke as Daenerys Targaryen, and Eiza Gonzalez as Auggie Salazar
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So you guys have rough cuts of the episodes, and you obviously show them to friends and family. Who gave you the best notes or feedback that made you look at the show in a completely new light and say, “Oh, wait a minute. Did we forget this?”
WEISS: We were lucky enough to have people around us who have our backs, who want the best for us and for the show, and who are completely without remorse in their willingness to stomp on something if they feel it needs to be stomped on. I’m thinking first and foremost about our wives, who, I hope, love us more than anybody else and are also willing to just tear into something. One might even say that there’s a certain pleasure taken. But yeah, it was our wives first and foremost, but there’s some other people — Scott Frank, Mark Bomback.
BENIOFF: Yeah, I was going to single out Dan’s college roommate, who happens to be this incredible screenwriter named Mark Bomback, who gave us one piece of advice that really changed one whole episode. The structure of it was completely changed based on a note he gave us.
WEISS: It’s really helpful to have people who know nothing about it and who want to like it, because that’s the analog for the ideal person. You’re showing a show to somebody, and they don’t know anything about it. Nobody turns on a show because they want to hate it. Everybody turns on a show because they’re looking for something they want to love. Find somebody who fits that profile but also has the ability to notice when something’s wrong, and [has] the language to tell you what that something wrong is and knows how to maybe suggest ways you might fix it. We’re just really lucky to have people like that in our lives.
I hadn’t read the books or knew anything before I pushed play, but was so happy because I didn’t know anything. I’m going to go back to what I asked towards the beginning. Hypothetically, Netflix gives you a green light and lets you make a Season 2. What’s the soonest you can actually be filming?
BENIOFF: Fall.
Of this year? So there’s a chance that Season 2 could be on at the end of next year?
BENIOFF: That seems optimistic.
WEISS: I’m not a scheduling person.
You can stream Season 1 of 3 Body Problem on Netflix now. For more on the series, check out our interview with the Oxford 5.
