The challenge of scale is a perennial issue for fantasy and science-fiction narratives. Audiences crave grand spectacles on screen, but without a connection to the characters, all the fantastical elements can feel as fleeting as a dazzling fireworks display, lacking any lasting impact.
In hindsight, it’s easy to underestimate the significance of the opening title sequence of Game of Thrones. David Benioff and D.B. Weiss took George R.R. Martin’s fantasy epic and transformed it into one of the most beloved and influential TV series of all time. Part of its success can be attributed to the meticulous casting and production design, but equally important was the unmistakable reminder at the start of each episode of where every character was situated and their approximate distances from one another. This allowed viewers to navigate the complex narrative layers effortlessly and to understand the political intrigues in the southern capital of Westeros juxtaposed against the encroaching threat of ice demons from the north.
Now, Benioff and Weiss have returned with their first TV project since the conclusion of Game of Thrones in 2019. Teaming up with Alexander Woo, they’ve adapted the highly acclaimed sci-fi novel The Three-Body Problem by Chinese author Cixin Liu for Netflix. While it’s unfair to draw direct parallels between this new venture and their previous work, given the myriad differences, the comparisons are inevitable. Notably, the inclusion of Game of Thrones veterans such as John Bradley, Liam Cunningham, and Jonathan Pryce in key roles hints at a similar scope. Weiss himself acknowledged in a 2022 interview with EW that The Three-Body Problem “pushes a lot of the same buttons.”
However, despite these similarities, The Three-Body Problem struggles to strike the same balance between epic, larger-than-life concepts and intimate, human-sized characters that made Game of Thrones so compelling.