3 Body Problem was an ambitious undertaking for Netflix and show creators David Benioff, D.B. Weiss and Alexander Woo; however, one scene ranked as the hardest part of the production to pull off – and it’s probably not the one you think!
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(MILD SPOILERS) One of the first scenes in 3 Body Problem‘s first episode establishes some deep-dive contextual frameworks for the main characters and story and avoids the usual expository drags by disguising the info dump as an awkward social interaction. Top-notch scientists and old-school chums Auggie Salazar (Eiza González) and Jin Cheng (Jess Hong) are reuniting for a drink in a karaoke bar. During their conversation the two ladies reveal brushstrokes of backstory about their time studying together at university and the friends group they formed (the main characters of the series); when some poor bar-bro comes up spouting the usual “What do you do for a living?” come-on, Auggie and Jin flatten him by running down their respective scientific credentials – a lot of big words and concepts that the Chad can’t fathom, leaving him to walk away sheepishly. Auggie also gets a call from their fellow scientist and friend Saul (Jovan Adepo), establishing the complicated relationship between them. That outing segues into the main galvanizing event of the episode: the suicide of Vera Ye (Vedette Lim), the mentor of Auggie, Jin, Saul, and their other friends, which first pulls the group back together and begins the mystery of why Vera and other scientists around the world are dying.
The scene became a key one for the showrunners of 3 Body Problem, as an earlier cut of the premiere left viewers very confused about how to get into the story and connect with its characters. That initial cut saw Vera’s sudden suicide scene segue into her funeral, where we would first fully meet Auggie, Jin, Jack Rooney (John Bradley), and Will Downing (Alex Sharp). It created too many questions while throwing viewers too deep into the pool of the story, too fast. However, getting the reshoot scene with Auggie and Jin in the can proved to be the most difficult undertaking for the production, as they planned it at the worst possible moment:
“We got the scene written the day before the strike,” Weiss revealed to THR. “It was literally five pages, but we really thought it was worth doing. Netflix was great about it. It would have been very easy for them to be like, ‘You have a finished show that is ready to air, for us to hold that [for a scene that’s] five minutes of two people in a bar … that it took some fortitude for them to just say, ‘Yeah.’”
Netflix scripted head Peter Friedlander slightly disagrees with Weiss’s assessment, saying the studio’s faith in 3 Body Problem made the delay easy to endure:
“I want to tell the best version of this story, and if there’s a critical moment that the producers want to capture and we have the time and resources to do it, I want to figure it out with them. They were total professionals, total collaborators, and very clear what their vision is. I don’t want the audiences to miss out on that. So it was not a hard decision for me.”
3 Body Problem is now streaming on Netflix.
