What you don’t know about the new Netflix series,’3 Body Problem’

Estimated reading time: 6 minutes

Netflix released an 8- 8-episode sci-fi television series on March 21, 2024. The series, 3 Body Problem has been in production since November 2022. The movie was released alongside an announced companion podcast– they sure need to explain some concepts to us.

The series, 3 Body Problem is characterized by concepts such as astrophysics, nanotechnology, the solar system, the planetary system, and space. The movie portrayed an alien invasion. This has been a recurring theme in most recent movies. Most movies portray the end of the world or aliens coming to take over from us for one reason or the other.

This series is nerdy though fictionalized. But trust me, do not watch if you are not ready to get acquainted with some physics jargon. But they say movies sometimes are foretellers so you better get to know what is to come the fun way. Here are five things you do not know about the blockbuster series;

5 things you might not know about 3 body problem

1. The movie is based on Liu Cixin’s Hugo Award-winning Chinese novel of the same title. The book is the first novel in the Remembrance of Earth’s Past trilogy. The award-winning novel was first published in 2008 in Chinese but was published in English in 2014. The translation made the book the first novel by an Asian writer to win the Hugo Award.

The story was originally a series in Science Fiction World in 2006 but it was published as a whole in 2008. The book received the Galaxy Award for Chinese Science Fiction in 2006. 3 Body Problem receive the nomination for the Nebula Award for Best Novel.

2. Netflix’s adaptation is not the first adaptation of Liu Cixin’s 3 Body Problem. First, in 2015, the Chinese adaptation was in production but it was never released. The Chinese adapted the book again into a television series which was released in early 2023.

Netflix’s adaptation which was released in March 2024 is the only adaptation in the English Language.

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3. Netflix’s show has fifteen executive producers among which is the producer of the popular series, Game of Thrones. David Benioff created the series alongside D.B Weiss and Alexander Woo for Netflix. Brad Pitt and Rosamund Pike are among the executive producers of the television series.

The cinematography of the movie was done by four cinematographers among which is Jonathan Freeman who shot, Game of Thrones. The movie was produced by five production companies.

4. Some Chinese are not happy with Netflix’s adaptation of the movie. Though the Chinese do not have access to Netflix they have been able to watch the movie using VPN and watching pirated versions.. They are not pleased with the portrayal of Chinese in the movie.

The viewers criticized the racebending and gender swapping of characters from what was portrayed in the Chinese novel. Some critics say that the Easterners were portrayed as villains while the Westerners took up the roles of saviors in the series.

Wikipedia reports that Benedict Wong, a cast member, responded to critics by saying that Liu Cixin had ‘given the showrunners his blessing to move the story towards a global one.’ Other Asian cast members saw the need to globalize an Eastern-focused story. Some Chinese appraise Netflix’s adaptation for its great depiction of the Cultural Revolution as it has wider appeal to a global audience.

5. The title of the movie, three-body Problem is a concept in physics and classical mechanics. According to Wikipedia, this concept was propounded by Isaac Newton in his book, Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica when he was trying to figure out if any long-term stability is possible, especially the system of our Earth, the Moon, and the Sun.

The three-body problem is chaotic as a result of the dynamical system. It is any problem in classical mechanics that models the motion of three particles. Amerigo Vespucci addressed the problem and subsequently, Galileo did, his name was mentioned a lot in the movie. Simon Stevin also addressed the problem.

The problem is ‘a conundrum in astronomy and mathematics that describes why it is often difficult to predict the long-term trajectory of planets, moon and stars.’

Subsequently, in time, ways to solve the three-body problem have been propounded by scientists and physicists. Reports in 2023 have shown that a range of solutions have been found to this problem. The concept might be complex to non-physicists or non-scientists with an explanation in simple terms in the movie, one can get it.

3 Body Problem

The movie, 3 body problem rates 7.8/10 on IMDb with a 77% on Rotten Tomatoes. The movie’s description is ‘eerie, intense and sweeping’. The movie would not be complete without a second season but there is no announcement regarding that. Viewers have found the fifth episode of the movie as their highlight but you cannot know this if you have not watched it. The dynamics of science portrayed in an artistic form will surely stun you.