Zhang Yimou is set to direct a feature film version of Three-Body Problem

Last Updated on June 21, 2024

The new Netflix series 3 Body Problem is continuing to tell the story of its first season through some “additional episodes” that the streamer has ordered, which will seemingly segue into new seasons as the show has been renewed for two more. The Three-Body Problem was the title of the first novel in Liu Cixin’s Remembrance of Earth’s Past trilogy. The second novel was titled The Dark Forest and the third was Death’s End. The first season of 3 Body Problem did pull in a sizeable audience, but the show wasn’t exactly the massive hit Netflix was hoping it would be, especially when you factor in the price tag of over $20 million per episode. The property will now also be getting a feature film treatment as Deadline has revealed that renowned Chinese director Zhang Yimou, known for the Jet Li film Hero and the Matt Damon historical creature film The Great Wall, will be behind the camera for the Three-Body Problem movie. According to Deadline, “The announcement was made by Wang Changtian, CEO of China’s Enlight Media, during the opening forum of the Shanghai International Film Festival this past weekend. He said the project is currently in the post-production stage. Footage of the announcement has been shared widely across social media sites.”

As for the Netflix show, David Benioff, D.B. Weiss, and Alexander Woo have previously said that they envisioned a multi-season arc for the series, which could span between three or four seasons. “Well, there’s three novels in the trilogy,” Woo told GamesRader earlier this year. “The novels get longer and longer so I wouldn’t say it maps out exactly to three. 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.“

The first eight episodes of the Netflix adaptation had the following synopsis: A young woman’s fateful decision in 1960s China reverberates across space and time to a group of brilliant scientists in the present day. As the laws of nature unravel before their eyes, five former colleagues reunite to confront the greatest threat in humanity’s history. The series stars Eiza González (Baby Driver, From Dusk Till Dawn: The Series), Jovan Adepo (Overlord, The Stand), Benedict Wong (Doctor Strange, Gemini Man), John Bradley (Game of Thrones, Moonfall), Tsai Chin (Lucky Grandma, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings), Liam Cunningham (Game of Thrones, Dog Soldiers), Jess Hong (Inked, The Brokenwood Mysteries), Marlo Kelly (Home and Away, Dare Me), Alex Sharp (How to Talk to Girls at Parties, The Trial of the Chicago 7), Sea Shimooka (Pink Skies Ahead, Arrow), Saamer Usmani (Inventing Anna, Succession), and newcomer Zine Tseng.