Following a pretty successful first season, even more people know about the intricate sci-fi mysteries of 3 Body Problem. The series is based on novels of the same name, and following the conclusion of the first season on Netflix, many want to better understand where the show might go from here.
While season 1 covers plenty of ground, the last episode may have left you feeling like you had way more questions that still needed to be answered. Here’s what we know about what will be in store for this show in its second season:
Is a season 2 of 3 Body Problem coming?
Netflix announced on May 15 that it had renewed the show for a second season. As they’ve been promoting the show, David Benioff and D.B. Weiss have suggested that the show could go for as long as four seasons. Benioff and Weiss said that they planned to adapt the second novel in author Cixin Liu’s trilogy, The Dark Forest, in the second season, but added that the third novel, Death’s End, could be split into two seasons.
“The third book is massive. It’s twice as long, I think, as the other two books,” Benioff explained. “So maybe that’s one season; maybe it’s two. But, you know, I think we’d need at least three, maybe four seasons to tell the whole story.”
What will the plot of season 2 of 3 Body Problem be?
3 Body Problem has already mixed in elements from each of the books, especially in its finale, but season 2 will likely focus primarily on the idea of Wallfacers. These Wallfacers, which include Jovan Adep’s Saul, are assigned the massive responsibility of coming up with a plan to stop the San-Ti, and keeping it completely to themselves so that the San-Ti don’t learn about it.
In The Dark Forest, that novel’s protagonist comes up with a hypothesis that there are other hostile alien races out there and plans to trick the San-Ti into surrendering by threatening to reveal their location to those other races. The hypothesis states that there are plenty of hostile alien races, but everyone is silent about the location of their planets for fear of being attacked.
The season may also include a massive jump forward in time as key figures like Saul, Wade, and Jin hibernate for 200 years and wake up in the future. Wade and Jin’s characters will be necessary to spur the events of Death’s End (which we’ll leave unspoiled for now).
Are the San-Ti coming?
At the end of the first novel, we know that the San-Ti are still 400 years away from Earth. While there will be some flashes forward in time, Liu’s novels don’t give a firm sense of what the Trisolarans actually look like. The simulation renders them as humanoid, but there’s no reason to believe that’s accurate. If the show wants to expand on the books, one of the most compelling ways it could do so is by giving us a firmer sense of what the San-Ti actually look like.
When is the release date for season 2?
Season 2 has no firm release date yet, so it seems likely to come sometime in 2025 or even later.
