The most primal of all fears is the fear of the unknown. And what is more unknown than the infinite, indecipherable void of space? And what if an advanced alien species emerges out of that void to make first contact with the humans? While alien invasion stories are as old as cinema itself, Netflix’s upcoming series adaptation of Cixin Liu’s celebrated sci-fi novel, The Three-Body Problem, employs the unnerving threat of an alien contact to talk about human issues. Jovan Adepo explains, “What is really cool about the series is that we don’t talk about the aliens themselves or even show them. It allows the audience to use their own imagination and sometimes your imagination can scare you more than anything we could show. In agreement with this notion, John Bradley adds that this is precisely the strength of the series. “I think 3 Body Problem will recalibrate and re-evaluate the way we see alien invasion stories. Part of the cliche of alien stories is how aliens are often the bad guys and they are on this nihilistic mission to wipe us all out. I think the book and the show take a slightly different angle on that. This fear of the unknown doesn’t have to be about an alien species, it could be about how we see people from other countries.”
John Bradley and Jovan Adepo, along with actors Jess Hong, Alex Sharp, and Eiza Gonzalez, play the Oxford Five, a close-knit group of brilliant scientists, who inadvertently get entangled in humanity’s response to the alien threat. Jess Hong reiterates Bradley’s point about the story being a metaphor for the human proclivity to fear what we do not understand and proclaims that the show is more about humans than aliens. “I think what I love the most about the series is that it is not your classic alien invasion show like Doctor Who, where all these creatures come to destroy us. At its heart, 3 Body Problem is about humanity. I think it is very philosophical and dramatic, and it uses our collective response to an alien threat as a prism to show the various ways in which we respond to fear.”
Benedict Wong, who plays investigative officer Da Shi and Liam Cunningham, who plays Thomas Wade, the wealthy charismatic leader of Earth’s planetary defence, throw light on the irony of filming a series about an unknown threat to humanity while going through the COVID-19 pandemic. “Filming this during the Covid breakout was very scary because we did not know how virulent this thing could be or if it could evolve into something that could wipe us all out. It divided people,” says Liam Cunningham. Benedict Wong adds, “The fear of not knowing what to do about the threat, that we experienced during the pandemic, is in the very structure of the story.” While certain cast members related to the story through real-world events, some like Alex Sharp employed a more direct approach; by diving into the source material. “After I read the book, I put it down and started staring out the window, contemplating the themes because the story makes you uncomfortable. It is a modern re-interpretation of HP Lovecraft’s stories about existential dread. It made me anxious,” he says. Bradley talks about how this anxiety around a cosmic threat mirrors how we, humans, treat each other. “We are programmed, in a self-preservation way, to see anybody who is different from us in any way, as an enemy. The book and the series go quite a long way to show how this is just a strange insecurity we have and if we were just a bit more accepting of people with differences, we might find that it is better for all of us.”
Digging further into the central theme of the show, Cunningham explains that like all great science fiction, 3 Body Problem could also be interpreted as a warning for humanity. “We as a species are always facing the possibility of an existential threat. And then there is a very real possibility that we could turn on each other. Not only do you have the threat from without but also a threat from within. As we know, the only way our species could survive is if we work together. Otherwise, extinction awaits us,” Liam Cunningham signs off on an ominous note.