A spooky choral version of Radiohead’s Everything in its Right Place soundtracks the first full trailer for Netflix’s upcoming and highly-anticipated sci-fi series 3 Body Problem, which the streaming giant unveiled today at CES (and which you can check out at the bottom of this post).
The high-profile setting for the reveal of the series’ first trailer was certainly fitting for a number of reasons, one of which is that the showrunners and executive producers include Alexander Woo, David Benioff and D.B. Weiss — those last two being, of course, the same showrunners who oversaw HBO’s adaptation of George R.R. Martin’s Game of Thrones, making 3 Body Problem their high-stakes follow-up project.
There’s also a virtual reality game at the heart of the story, so the CES location was appropriate, but I’ll be honest: I’m a little hazy on that VR part, because while the 3 Body Problem book series from Chinese novelist Cixin Liu has been praised as one of the all-time greats of the genre … I was bored out of my mind when I tried to get into the book.
Maybe something’s lost in translation, but the story just felt super dense and dry to me — so much so that I could not for the life of me understand what all the fuss was about. That, coupled with the fact that Benioff and Weiss are behind this Netflix release (one of the biggest of 2024’s upcoming streaming releases at the moment), I’m basically doubly skeptical about whether I’ll end up liking the series. It’s hard to forgive those guys for how badly they whiffed on the final Game of Thrones seasons once they got ahead of Martin’s published source material.
Having said all that, I’m happy to be proven wrong here — and, in fact, I am kind of hoping that I turn out to be wrong. Check out the full 3 Body Problem trailer below, and I’m sure you’ll agree that it looks like it has the makings of a deeply engrossing sci-fi hit. “The story,” Netflix’s Tudum site explains, “begins in 1960s China when a young woman makes a fateful decision that reverberates across space and time into the present day.
“When the laws of nature inexplicably unravel, a tight-knit group of brilliant scientists must join forces with an unflinching detective to stop humanity’s greatest threat. 3 Body Problem is an epic story that redefines sci-fi drama with its layered mysteries and story of human connection.”
The cast is also jam-packed with top-notch actors. Among the cast are Game of Thrones vets like John Bradley and Liam Cunningham, as well as Eiza González, Benedict Wong, and Jonathan Pryce.
The eight episodes of 3 Body Problem hit Netflix on March 21.
