“3 Body Problem”: Filming of a 5-minute scene delayed the $160 million sci-fi series for months

Five pages of script, only five minutes long – and yet the filming of a very special scene without major effects meant that the Netflix series “3 Body Problem” was only released much later than planned, namely in March 2024 instead of already summer 2023 ! And the fact that we waited so long because of this one scene shows: The Showrunners David Benioff, DB Weiss and Alexander Woo I really didn’t make any compromises…

The new adaptation ‘3 Body Problem’ was already shot and ready for release in mid-2023. But the showrunners wanted to do everything perfectly and knew that in a sci-fi series it was not just about an alien invasion, but especially on complex scientific and philosophical topics and theories, everything has to be right, so that the audience can follow the events. And good character drawing is almost more important than any special effect in the $20 million episodes.

So important that the scene couldn’t be missed!

So Benioff, Weiss and Woo wrote a simple bar scene for the series opener, in which there is only talking, but a lot is revealed as a result. The problem: Hollywood’s double strike began immediately afterwards – so the scene couldn’t be shot. Rather than release the actual completed series without this scene, “3 Body Problem” was delayed until these few minutes could be added after the strike was over.

In the mentioned scene in episode 1, Auggie (Eiza González) and Jin(Jess Hong) a drink in a bar. They discuss their careers, a phone call from Saul (Jovan Adepo) gives you a brief insight into the (romantic) constellations of the circle of friends, their connection with Vera (Vedette Lim), who has just committed suicide, is emphasized – and Auggie’s countdown begins a. All this in five minutes, which serve as the audience’s first contact with the Oxford Five, the later main characters of season 1.

Netflix was patient

“We wrote this scene the day before the strike started,” DB Weiss said in an interview with . “It was literally five pages, but we thought the scene was really worth filming. Netflix has been great at this. It would have been easy for them to say, ‘You’ve completed a series ready for release, to now hold this back [wegen einer Szene] from five minutes to two people in a bar…” The streaming service showed true strength when it agreed to wait months for this one scene.

Was it worth it? You can decide that yourself. All eight episodes of the first season of “3 Body Problem” are based on the “Trisolaris” books* by Liu Cixin are available on Netflix. Whether the science fiction series will get a second season will become clear in the coming weeks. If you want to dive even deeper into the universe of “3 Body Problem”, listen to the podcast Streamgekram from our colleagues at Moviepilot, which we have recorded for you above.