Netflix hasn't renewed 3 Body Problem, but the creators are planning anyway

Last week, Netflix dropped the first season of 3 Body Problem, its adaptation of the Remembrance of Earth's Past novel trilogy by Liu Cixin. This ambitious sci-fi show tells a generation-spanning story about humaniiy's first contact with an extraterrestrial species. The first season ends with some major questions unresolved, namely whether the people of Earth can come together and think up ways to protect the planet from invasion by the San Ti aliens, who are traveling across the vast reaches of outer space. They will arrive in 400 years. Will we be ready?

There's a lot more book to adapt. As of this writing, Netflix has not yet renewed 3 Body Problem for a second season. They're likely looking at the viewership numbers and pondering a decision. In the meantime, the producers are laying down track. Speaking on the Inside Total Film podcast, showrunner Alexander Woo hinted that they want to make at least three seasons, and maybe more.

“Well, there’s three novels in the trilogy. The novels get longer and longer so I wouldn’t say it maps out exactly to three,” Woo said. “We have some really strong ideas about what to do in a season two, and then it’s a little hazier down the line. But we want to get to the end, we want to get to the end of the trilogy, and whether that’s three or four, you know, or some other number.”

"The goal is to get to the end of the trilogy and it seems like it would map out over probably, certainly more than two seasons but beyond that, it’s hard to know exactly."

For the record, the novels in the trailer are, in publication order, The Three-Body Problem, The Dark Forest and Death's End. The first season of 3 Body Problem adapted pretty much all of first book, with elements from the second and third thrown in. But Woo is right that the novels get longer as they go, so there's still a lot of source material to adapt.

Showrunner Dan Weiss assured fans that they're planning a second season while they wait for word from Netflix. “We don’t have a second season, but we need to keep pushing forward full steam ahead as if we did,” he said. “Because if we do get a second season, we’ll need to hit the ground running in terms of pre-production and production to get it out to people in some kind of reasonable time. A show like this takes a long time to make and you can’t wait to get started thinking about it until somebody gives you the green light...We’ve got a second season that is being formulated and kept on deck in the event that we get to go ahead.”

Before working on 3 Body Problem, Weiss and his producing partner David Benioff created Game of Thrones for HBO. Benioff is a showrunner on 3 Body Problem too. Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter, he talked about a moment from the second book in Liu Cixin's novel trilogy he really wants to adapt. “So I feel if we survive to the second season, we’re going to be in a good place. Things wildly escalate and there’s one scene, if we get to it, we’re golden—like when we got to the Red Wedding onThrones.”

When has Netflix renewed shows similar to 3 Body Problem in the past?

Netflix's decision whether to renew 3 Body Problem will depend on how many people watch it. So how many people are watching it? As I write this, 3 Body Problem is the second most viewed show on Netflix in the United States, behind a true crime docuseries called Homicide: New York. That's not bad, but not so good that it immediately requires a renewal.

However, according to the @3bodyuniverse X account, 3 Body Problem is the number one most watched show in 70 regions, which is up from 60 the other day. That makes sense to me, since I think this show is a slow burner that grows on you the longer you watch it. That was certainly my experience.

So the number are pretty good, but we'll have to see how well they hold up in the days and weeks ahead. When it comes to expensive genre series like this, we might look to new Netflix shows like One Piece and Avatar: The Last Airbender, both of which dropped their first seasons in the past year. In both cases, we heard about the renewals around two weeks after the episodes dropped. The first season of 3 Body Problem premiered on Thursday, March 28. Does that mean we'll hear something by Thursday, April 11?

It's not a guarantee, but I think that's a date worth paying attention to. Here's hoping we get news about season 2 and beyond very soon.

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