The creators of The 3-Body Problem say that the second season will be even better. But will they have the right?

Launched a week ago on Netflix, The 3-Body Problem, a new series from the creators of Game of Thrones with Alexander Wu, seems to be leaving no one indifferent.

The audience is also divided. Some fans of Liu Cixin’s novel criticize the series for its bold adaptation choices, and many others say it’s one of the best series in the genre they’ve ever watched. Still, there’s a consistent reaction among fans who’ve finished the series: The end of the series made them want to see a sequel.

They are creators

In turn, showrunners David Benioff, DB Weiss and Alexander Woo predict that the second season will be better than the first. Benioff said The Hollywood Reporter :”There’s a scene in Season 2 where everything goes haywire and if we make it, we’ll be stained – like when we got to the Red Wedding in Game of Thrones“.

“We also spoke to Netflix officials about it“, he added. “Liu Cixin created this indelible trilogy and the books keep getting better and better for me. The second book is much better than the first, and the third completely blew me away. The story gets more and more ambitious as it progresses and there is a big jump in the second book. So I feel like if we survive the second season, we’ll be in a good place.“

Expensive series…

The downside of 3-Body Problem is its high price. As we announced at the launch, it would be the most expensive series in Netflix history, costing around $20 million per episode. This is a price that the broadcaster could easily afford a few years ago, when the platform financed all projects in all directions.

And Netflix is ​​notoriously pragmatic when it comes to renewal decisions. “Budget and audience size factor into renewal decisions– said content director Bela Bajaria last year.Commitment is very important. Did viewers hit play but didn’t finish the series?“

When it launched, The Three-Body Problem didn’t break any viewership records. Still, according to The Hollywood Reporter, it climbed to second place on Netflix’s top series. Which is fine, but the platform could have hoped for better.

But it is a prestigious series

It should not be taken out of the equation that The 3-Body Problem is not a mediocre series and that Benioff and Weiss’s simple name is there to enhance the showcase. The fact that they’re signed to a multi-year overall deal worth at least $200 million, and that this is the only series they created themselves (along with Alexander Wu), is also a key element.

Streaming platforms and TV networks tend to be a little more hesitant to cancel series produced by their bigwigs (which isn’t to say that Netflix isn’t up to the challenge — they pulled Ryan Murphy’s Ratched after one season, for example).

Another positive sign is that Netflix is ​​doing its best to promote the series, which is not always the case. And unlike some of its competitors, the platform is currently doing pretty well. In its most recent quarterly report, the service gained 13 million subscribers and the stock has nearly recovered from a disastrous 2022 slump.

good hope

The creators of The 3-Body Problem say they believe the series would ideally span four seasons (spoiler alert:
Spoiler:
Big jump for season two).

While it’s hard to know if they’ll get four seasons — and the series’ still-unknown viewership will be crucial — The 3-Body Problem has several factors in its favor for renewal. For their part, the showrunners are acting like they’re going to renew, so they’re ready to get back into production quickly.

“We don’t have a second season, but we have to keep going full speed ahead as if it is– said Benioff recently Games radar. “Indeed, if we do get a second season, we will have to work in pre-production and production to get it out in a reasonable timeframe.“

So fingers crossed!