Netflix debuted the official full trailer for 3 Body Problem at CES in Las Vegas today, an eight-episode sci-fi series adapted from the award-winning novel The Three-Body Problem by Liu Cixin, the first book in his Remembrance of Earth's Past trilogy. The series was created by David Benioff, D.B. Weiss (Game of Thrones), and Alexander Woo (True Blood). CES attendees also had the opportunity to participate in a 3 Body Problem "immersive experience," intended to transport them "into the mysterious world of the series in a fun and experimental way."

(Some spoilers for the novel below.)

The novel began as serialized fiction in Science Fiction World in 2006 and received the Galaxy (Yinhe) Award for Chinese science fiction that same year. Liu published it as a standalone book in 2008. But it was Ken Liu's 2014 English translation for Tor Books—complete with informative footnotes to acquaint Western readers with the many references to Chinese history, particularly the Cultural Revolution—that rocketed The Three-Body Problem to international acclaim. Liu is also the author of two follow-up novels to complete the trilogy (The Dark Forest and Death's End), as well as The Wandering Earth—adapted into film in 2019—and Ball Lightning.

The Three-Body Problem's narrative is told in a nonlinear fashion, jumping between a young astrophysicist, Ye Wenjie, who witnesses her father being beaten to death by Red Guards during the Cultural Revolution, and Ye's return to Tsinghua University as an established professor many years later. During the earlier timeline, Ye figures out a means of sending an interstellar message to possible extraterrestrial civilizations and receives a response from a planet called Trisolaris. (As its name implies, the planet has three suns, which wreak havoc on Trilosolaris via unpredictable "chaotic periods"—hence the novel's title, which refers to a classic problem in celestial mechanics.) Despite being warned that the aliens intend to invade and conquer Earth, Ye responds to the message and invites them to do so, disillusioned by the state of the world.

Advertisement

The Trisolarians depart on their 450-year journey. Meanwhile, there have been complicated developments on Earth as people learn of the pending arrival of aliens. There is a secret society of scientists, political leaders, and other scholars who share Ye's sentiment about the state of humanity, which, over time, splits into three competing factions. Some members continue to support the full destruction of humanity; others plan to help the aliens in exchange for the survival of themselves and their descendants; and still, others regularly play a VR game called Three-Body and attempt to find a computational solution to the actual three-body problem that plagues Trisolaris. That's a recipe for tension and conflict, which play out in various ways throughout the novel.

The Netflix series is the first large-scale project by Benioff and Weiss since they signed a major deal with the streaming platform in 2019. Those still bitter about how the pair botched the final season of Game of Thrones might understandably feel some concern about their involvement. I'm more optimistic. With the earlier seasons of GoT in particular, Benioff and Weiss were masterful at adapting the sweeping, epic saga; they only ran into trouble when they caught up with the source material and had to flesh out rough story outlines on their own. That won't be an issue with the Liu trilogy. Plus, they have Alexander Woo as a co-creator.