We don’t know how much money Netflix paid to buy the adaptation rights to Liu Cixin’s best-selling sci-fi series Remembrance of Earth’s Past, but we did hear rumours Amazon tried to snag them for $1 billion. Then Netflix reportedly paid Game of Thrones showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss $266 million for services including overseeing the adaptation of the first book in the trilogy, The 3–Body Problem. Now, Netflix has spent even more cash, because the series’ first dozen stars have been announced, and it’s quite a list.
As Deadline reports, Benedict Wong (Dr. Strange and other MCU movies), Tsai Chin (Shang-Chi and the Legend of the 10 Rings), and Game of Thrones stars Liam Cunningham (who played Davos) and John Bradley (who played Samwell Tarly) are probably the most recognisable names for Gizmodo readers. But there’s also Sea Shimooka, who played Oliver’s unknown half-sister Emiko on Arrow, and Jovan Adepo, who played the young Will Reeves in the Watchmen TV series. We knew Baby Driver’s Eiza Gonzales was in talks to be joining the project, but you can consider her officially signed on — along with Jess Hong, Marlo Kelly, Alex Sharp, Zine Tseng, and Saamer Usmani.
The 3-Body Problem (which seems to be how Netflix has titled it instead of the traditional “three”) is about an astrophysicist who witnesses her father killed during China’s Cultural Revolution. Later, she discovers an alien civilisation on a planet perilously trapped between three stars and misanthropically invites them to invade Earth. When the news hits, different factions of humanity emerge with very different ideas about what to do next.
If there’s any chance that Netflix paid a billion dollars for the rights to these books, you know it’s going to spend a lavish amount of money to make The 3-Body Problem as extravagant as a sci-fi series can get, so maybe we’ll get the series in 2022, although I wouldn’t bet on it.