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What changed on screen
What changed on screen, title by title: 13 in total. Tap a cover to open it. Titles you haven't marked as read stay locked so nothing gets spoiled.
- Referencenod to comics or other movies
- Cameoa familiar face shows up
- Setupplanted now, pays off later
- Behind the scenesproduction trivia
- ChangeWang Miao became five
In the book, almost everything runs through one protagonist, nanomaterials researcher Wang Miao. Netflix splits his role among the Oxford Five: Auggie gets the nanofibers and the countdown, Jin gets the game.
source ↗ - ChangeFrom Beijing to London
The book is set almost entirely in China. The show keeps 1960s China but moves the present-day story to London and Oxford, with an international cast and English dialogue.
source ↗ - ChangeShi Qiang becomes Clarence
Detective Shi Qiang, whom everyone calls Da Shi, becomes Clarence "Da" Shi, played by Benedict Wong. The nickname stayed; now he works with Thomas Wade.
source ↗ - ChangeThe Chinese version sticks to the book
Three-Body (2023) keeps Wang Miao, Beijing and the order of the chapters. Over 30 episodes, Chinese viewers praised how faithful it was, and The New York Times found the virtual reality game simpler than the book's.
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- ChangeLuo Ji becomes Saul
Book 2's protagonist is Luo Ji, a Chinese sociologist who used to be an astronomer. On the show, the role goes to Saul Durand, one of the Oxford Five, whom S1 deliberately keeps in the shadows until the final episode.
source ↗ - ChangeFour Wallfacers become three
In the book, the UN picks four Wallfacers: a former US Secretary of Defense, a former president of Venezuela, an English neuroscientist and Luo Ji. At the end of S1, the show introduces three, with Saul among them.
source ↗ - ChangeZhang Beihai becomes Raj
Chinese Navy commissar Zhang Beihai becomes Raj Varma, a Royal Navy commander and Jin's boyfriend.
source ↗ - ChangeOnly the beginning, for now
The Wallfacer project, which gives S1's final episode its name, doesn't show up until about page 100 of the book. Almost all the rest of The Dark Forest has yet to reach the screen.
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- ChangeCheng Xin becomes Jin
Engineer Cheng Xin, who proposes the Staircase project in book 3, becomes Jin Cheng, a physicist in the Oxford Five. On the show, Jin also inherits the game sessions that belonged to Wang Miao in book 1.
source ↗ - ChangeYun Tianming becomes Will
Yun Tianming, the college classmate in love with Cheng Xin, becomes Will Downing. The show keeps the cancer, the star DX3906 bought as a gift and his place in the Staircase project.
source ↗ - ChangeWade arrives two books early
Thomas Wade, the cold chief of the intelligence agency that runs the Staircase project, is a book 3 character. On the show, Liam Cunningham plays Wade from the first episode on, leading the response to the crisis.
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- Behind the scenesFrom fan to published author
Baoshu wrote the book as fan fiction right after Death's End. Liu Cixin's own publisher, Chongqing Press, released it in 2011 with his permission, as Three-Body X.
source ↗ - Behind the scenesNot canon
Neither Liu Cixin nor the publisher has said whether the story is canon, and Baoshu's own foreword makes no such claim. The English translation is by Ken Liu, who also translated books 1 and 3.
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