When sci-fi series “3 Body Problem” debuted, it quickly became one of the most popular series on Netflix both among critics and viewers alike. As of January 2025, it's maintained its 79% “fresh” rating with critics at Rotten Tomatoes, and an equally impressive 77% audience score. Our own Malcolm McMillan called it “the best show of 2024 so far" at the time, and it's still managing to captivate new viewers even now.
We already knew that Netflix was planning to bring another season out, as it was announced in May 2024. Initially announced simply as "additional episodes," it was later clarified that the renewal would cover two more seasons to complete the adaptation of Liu's books.
Unfortunately, there's not much information floating around right now about the new episodes. However, there are some juicy tidbits floating around that we can talk about today. With that in mind, here's everything we know so far about "3 Body Problem" season 2.
'3 Body Problem' season 2 release speculation
There was a renewal announcement earlier in May 2024 for two additional seasons of "3 Body Problem". However, the exact episode count for the next two seasons has yet to be determined, it's safe to say that it will be a while before "3 Body Problem" fans get to see any new episodes.
Benioff, Weiss and Woo are just beginning to break the story with their writing staff, and both production and post-production on an epic, effects-heavy show like "3 Body Problem" take quite a long time. It was two and a half years between the time that production began on the first season and when it finally premiered on Netflix.
On March 10, Eiza González, who plays nanotechnology development specialist and Oxford Five founding member Auggie Salazar, shared some new details about when season 2 will enter production with Screen Rant during SXSW.
González noted that she was excited to explore the events of the second novel "The Dark Forest", noting that it would be in production "very, very soon," adding "this year".
"Dark Forest is my favorite book, and I'm very excited," she said. "I hate to say this because I think every part of a series is important, and this is no different to that, but definitely when we were talking about the books, the showrunners were like, "We just have to power through the first season to get to the real juicy part of the story and where it goes."
Still, even with production getting underway soon, don't expect to see another season of "3 Body Problem" on Netflix until late 2025 at the earliest. Spring 2026, which would be two years after the premiere of the first season, seems like a stronger probability.
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'3 Body Problem' season 2 cast
One thing that "3 Body Problem" has in common with "Game of Thrones" is its willingness to kill off major characters, which means that many of the main cast members from the first season will not return for future episodes (barring potential flashbacks). Liu's novels jump forward across significant periods of time, so it's possible that new actors may step in to play existing characters as well.
Characters who appear in the later books in the trilogy are likely to show up on the series in some form, although they may be changed significantly, just as the characters in the first season were substantially altered from the versions in the books.
For now, here are the series regulars from the first season whom we expect to show up again in "3 Body Problem" season 2.
- Jovan Adepo as Dr. Saul Durand
- Liam Cunningham as Thomas Wade
- Eiza González as Dr. Augustina "Auggie" Salazar
- Jess Hong as Dr. Jin Cheng
- Marlo Kelly as Tatiana Haas
- Sea Shimooka as Sophon
- Saamer Usmani as Prithviraj "Raj" Varma
- Benedict Wong as Clarence Shi
'3 Body Problem' season 2 plot
The first season of “3 Body Problem” ends with some pretty major open questions, so it seems likely that the second season will pick up there, to address the immediate resolutions to those cliffhangers. Liu’s novels span a period of hundreds of years, though, so there’s potential for the second season of “3 Body Problem” to expand its sci-fi world even further, with a grand, universe-spanning story of space travel and intergalactic conflict.
Benioff, Weiss and Woo have grounded Liu’s story in personal relationships to a greater degree than in the novels, and the story is likely to continue focusing on those relationships even as its scope expands across time and space. There’s the opportunity to add new characters as the story evolves, and the creators have also shown that they’re willing to make changes to Liu’s story in order to reach their target audience.
As González noted when speaking about season 2 going into production, it will adapt "The Dark Forest", the second book in the series. This installment follows humanity preparing for an invasion by the alien Trisolarans. To counter alien surveillance, the UN appoints "Wallfacers," strategists who plan Earth's defense in total secrecy. Luo Ji, one such Wallfacer, formulates the "Dark Forest Theory," which suggest that civilizations should stay hidden so they can avoid destruction. Of course, this likely will only lay the groundwork for what's to come.
Benioff, Weiss and Woo have plenty of ideas for more seasons of “3 Body Problem,” and there’s a wealth of material left to adapt from Liu’s subsequent novels. “We included a lot of what we loved from the [novels] in season 1, but the vast majority of reasons we wanted to make this show are in season 2,” Weiss told Netflix's Tudum. “We always wanted to get to the final page of the third book, and it’s really, really thrilling to us that we will get to do just that.”
At one time, the creators indicated that they envisioned four seasons to tell the entire story, but now that the show is confirmed to last for three seasons, they're confident that they'll be able to bring it to a satisfying close in that amount of time. “We knew going into this how many hours we need to tell the rest of the story because we’ve got a roadmap through to the end,” Weiss told The Hollywood Reporter. “And we have what we need to get to the end as intended from when we started.”
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