Liu Cixin’s Hugo-winning sci-fi story The Three-Body Problem is becoming a television show at Netflix, with Game of Thrones’ David Benioff and D.B. Weiss showrunning alongside True Blood and The Terror: Infamy’s Alexander Woo.
Netflix announced in a press release that The Three-Body Problem would be the latest sci-fi series coming to the streaming platform. It’s the first major series for Benioff and Weiss since HBO’s Game of Thrones ended last year, which was originally meant to be followed by the duo heading to Lucasfilm to helm a new Star Wars movie series, before that was cancelled.
In a shared statement, Benioff and Weiss said they’re excited to spend “the next years of our lives” working on The Three-Body Problem, indicating that it could end up being a multi-season story for the streaming platform.
It was previously rumoured that Amazon Studios was working on a television adaptation of Remembrance of Earth’s Past — the sci-fi series from Liu best known by the name of its first book, The Three-Body Problem — but now it looks to have moved onto Netflix. There was also a Chinese film adaptation in the works from YooZoo Pictures, but it was never completed or released.
The Netflix series boasts an impressive group of producers and teams. Star Wars: The Last Jedi’s Rian Johnson will be executive producing alongside partner Ram Bergman, alongside Plan B Entertainment (Brad Pitt, Jeremy Kleiner, and Dede Gardner’s company), Primitive Steak (Rosamund Pike and Robie Uniacke), as well as YooZoo Group chairman Lin Qi and The Three-Body Universe vice president Zhao Jilong. In addition, author Cixin will be serving as a consulting producer alongside Ken Liu, who wrote the English translation for The Three-Body Problem.
“I have the greatest respect for and faith in the creative team adapting The Three-Body Problem for television audiences,” Cixin said in a statement. “I set out to tell a story that transcends time and the confines of nations, cultures, and races; one that compels us to consider the fate of humankind as a whole.”
No expected release date has been announced.