Adapting a complicated book series for the screen is no easy feat. David Benioff and D.B. Weiss learned many hard lessons while turning George R.R. Martin’s fantasy novel series “A Song of Ice and Fire” into the hit HBO show Game of Thrones.
The pair took those hard-won lessons and joined forces with True Blood’s Alexander Woo to tackle another series of books for Netflix’s highly-anticipated 3 Body Problem.
The trio did a brilliant job with Chinese author Cixin Liu’s award-winning book trilogy “The Three-Body Problem” for the eight-episode show, which premieres on March 21. It’s a high-concept sci-fi tale that takes the viewer on a journey that jumps between perfectly woven together timelines in mind-bending ways. It’s a real trip!
In a recent interview, the trio, who serve as co-creators, executive producers, and writers, discussed their five-year journey to adapt Liu’s masterpiece. Benioff talked about a dinner with Weiss, producer Cindy Holland, and Netflix’s head of scripted series (U.S. and Canada), Peter Friedlander, in May of 2019. It was the initial meeting that set it all in motion.
He credits Friedlander with putting the band together. He asked if Benioff and Weiss had read the books. They knew of them but had not read them yet. “He said they were magnificent,” Benioff recalled, adding that Friedlander admitted at the time that he didn’t know for certain if they could obtain the rights.
With their curiosity piqued, Benioff and Weiss each got all three books and brought them on a previously planned trip to Japan. They finished the third book within minutes of one another on the flight home. They knew they had to make this series and immediately called Friedlander, who suggested they team up with Woo.
Friedlander’s hunch paid off and Woo met Weiss and Benioff for the first time. “I believed Peter when he said he felt we would get along,” said Woo, who had also heard of the books but had yet to read them.
Their hard work resulted in one of the most epic Netflix series to date (and certainly one of the streamer’s best series of 2024) but the road to a gripping, binge-worthy sci-fi television series was long and, at times, bumpy.
The story jumps between the Chinese Cultural Revolution of the 1960s to present-day real life and an immersive futuristic VR game that is too advanced for modern explanation.
The viewer goes back in time to meet a brilliant astrophysicist named Ye Wenjie, who is portrayed by Zine Tseng and later Rosalind Chao, on a tragic day in her life. We witness the moment that will push her to make a decision that will threaten humankind.
In 2024, high-profile scientists are dying horrific deaths by suicide. A group of young scientists, whom viewers will come to know as the Oxford Five anchor the story as they grapple with these mysterious deaths.
This group includes physics research assistant Saul Durand (Jovan Adepo), founder of a cutting-edge nanotech startup Auggie Salazar (Eiza González), theoretical physicist Jin Cheng (Jess Hong), snack-empire entrepreneur Jack Rooney (Game of Thrones’ John Bradley), and Will Downing (Alex Sharp).
Their story is soon interwoven with that of unorthodox detective Da Shi (Benedict Wong) who is investigating what’s behind this string of suicides. Auggie starts to see an ominous countdown, which is connected to her nanofiber research and soon enough, all learn that the fate of humankind is teetering on the brink. Auggie’s work leads to one of the most incredible action sequences ever filmed.
Weiss confirmed that though the book trilogy is built for multiple seasons, they had to get creative in the writers’ room. “It’s not a strict book one/season one, book two/season two for various reasons. Most of the characters in the books don’t know each other or interact. There are many great characters in the books, but for television, we need them to meet each other and have strong feelings, thoughts, and relationships with one another. So, a lot of it was about combining some of the sections, especially the earlier sections of the second and third books, weaving them into the first book, and creating a shared history. We combined some characters and split some characters into two and we did other character horse-trading to make what we thought would be the best version of the television adaptation. We field our way as we go but it would be a multiple-season arc if all goes as planned.”
When asked how they keep the various storylines and characters together, Benioff told me they rely on cork boards and colored index cards to keep things organized. “Each color represents either a character or a plot line. There’s something about being in a room, seeing these boards on all the walls, and feeling the season there. You get a sense of like, ‘We don’t have enough Saul in this episode.’ You can look at it and feel if the colors are off. That’s making it seem like it’s more schematic than it is. Honestly, it’s just talking endlessly.”
After working virtually for a few years during the pandemic, and deciding how to adapt the story, they brought two more writers into the room. “We had already outlined the story. We revised the outline and started writing scripts,” said Benioff. “The writing process continued throughout the season while we were shooting and it continued after because after it was over we realized we needed more scenes because some things weren’t clear, and there were some characters that we thought could be sharper. There were just things we thought we could do better.”
Benioff confirmed that there were reshoots and added scenes in all eight episodes. “There were a lot of mistakes made. I mean look, Dan and I made a pilot before for Thrones that had a lot of writing mistakes. There were basic exposition errors when we showed the pilot to friends.”
He admitted to an error in the first version of Game of Thrones in the famous scene in which Cersei and Jaime Lannister are having sex and Bran Stark is pushed out the window. Their friend, also a writer, watched the original pilot and pointed out that a significant detail wasn’t clear.
“He said, ‘Wait, are they supposed to be brother and sister?’ If you don’t know they’re twins, then the idea of them having sex in an attic isn’t nearly as shocking obviously. So, that was just a basic mistake in the writing where there wasn’t enough information,” explained Benioff.
“You realize if you say something once in an episode as a writer, you think, ‘Yeah it says it right there,’ but people don’t always pick things up on the first bounce,” he added. “You have to give them a couple of tries and we realized in the first pass of making 3 Body Problem that there were things smart viewers weren’t getting. That means we made mistakes in the writing. We had a chance to fix those mistakes and we were lucky to be working for a company that was willing to pay for these new scenes to be shot. We had a chance to make it better and I think that the show, as a result, is so much better than it would’ve been if we had shown it to you a year ago.”
Though the threat to humankind is a daunting topic, they created a hopeful tale, and Weiss confirmed there’s so much more to tell. “The story takes us from the point of first human contact with an alien civilization to the end of the universe. So, where season one ends is not anywhere close to the end of the universe. In terms of the runway that we have left to work with, there’s a lot of ground to cover. There’s so much mind-blowing stuff to explore and we’re just hoping we get a chance to go there.”
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