Cixin Liu’s sci-fi novel The Three-Body Problem can’t stop jumping to other formats. In addition to next year’s Netflix series from The Terror: Infamy’s Alexander Woo and Game of Thrones creators David Benioff and DB Weiss, last year saw the release of a serialized podcast (different from the audiobook version). And for 2022, we’ve got an animated series that’s premiering actually pretty soon.
Come December 3, an anime version of The Three-Body Problem will release on the Chinese streaming platform Bilibili. This series was originally announced in 2019 with a trailer, but things have been fairly quiet on that front up until now. Developed by CG studio YHTK Entertainment in partnership with The Three-Body Universe, a studio built specifically for the purpose of managing the franchise, a new trailer for the upcoming anime was released earlier in the week during a Bilibili anime showcase.
Released in 2008 as a standalone book after previously being serialized in the Science Fiction World magazine in 2006, The Three-Body Problem is the first in Liu’s hard sci-fi series, Remembrance of Earth’s Past. In the original novel, humanity manages to establish contact with an alien race and prepares for their arrival. Naturally, lines are drawn between genuinely welcoming a new species to Earth with open arms and preparing to defend the planet for an alien invasion.
Bilibili’s adaptation is the first of a larger initiative called the Three-Body Global Creator Project. Per the press release, animation studios across the world are permitted to explore the Remembrance franchise to showcase its global potential through various art and animation styles. Said Liu in that press release, “Animation, like science fiction, is the art of imagination. Imagination is humanity’s most powerful force. I believe in the world of animation, a sci-fi story like The Three-Body Problem can really come alive.”
And if animation or Netflix aren’t your bag, Tencent Video has made a live action version of The Three-Body Problem, though that version has yet to receive a release date.
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