To approach the look of Netflix’s 3 Body Problem, production designer Deborah Riley had to look back to move forward with her designs. Riley partnered with series creators David Benioff and D.B. Weiss on their Emmy-winning cultural phenomenon Game of Thrones. Given that, she understood how they approached their work and what they wanted from their entire creative teams.
Certainly, the original source novels by Liu Cixin helped provide some context, but Riley found it very mind-bending and dense, proving difficult for her to wrap her head around.
That’s when she leveraged her 5 time Emmy-winning experience on Game of Thrones to influence how she would approach 3 Body Problem.
“The thing that was really important about Thrones that I understood with [Benioff and Weiss] was that, in order for an audience to believe in dragons, you first had to believe in the world. If you believed in the world, then anything else was possible,” Riley shared. “What I understood about 3 Body Problem is, in this case, we had to believe in the science, and we had to believe in these scientists and what they were trying to achieve and what they were fighting against. Based on that, we had to create a very believable world for them to live in. Even though it is science fiction, we had to try and make it appear like it was science fact.”
While there are massive science fiction aspects to 3 Body Problem (such as nano fibers, ludicrously advanced virtual reality, and supercomputers the size of a baseball), all of it has basis in actual science. Riley and her creative team had access to two consultants. One, Matthew Kenzie, had practical experience at CERN and in the world of particle physics. That helped Riley envision what nano fiber technology would look like.
Then, to design the space-related material, Bobak Ferdowsi, the infamous “Mohawk Guy” from the 2012 Curiosity landing on Mars, provided context around rocket launches and what monitoring rooms would look like.
“On every level, we had professionals with us who gave us access to precisely what it would be in the real world,” Riley explained.
A good amount of the series takes place outside of the real world in an advanced VR simulation. Even though the project leveraged extensive VFX to render this virtual world, Riley and team wanted to create as much of the world in-camera (without VFX) as possible. They created the interior of the giant pyramid Jess Hong’s Dr. Jin Chung enters on a sound stage with VFX supplementing as necessary. They also extensively researched Mongolian architecture to replicate a major location for episode three in which Jin and Jack Rooney (Jack Bradley) are nearly virtually boiled alive. That sequence and the anti-gravity condition that follows also required extensive partnership with the VFX teams.
One of the major set pieces within season one is the Judgment Day sequence in which the above-mentioned nano fiber technology is employed against an oil tanker filled with thousands of people, essentially ripping the entire tanker and everyone in it to shreds. It’s an intense and unforgettable sequence that had to be broken down into its individual components to bring it to fruition. The sequence demanded sets to replicate the riverbank along the Panama Canal where people monitor the events on the Judgment Day. The tanker itself, which is essentially sliced like bread into individual pieces, was comprised of executive-level corridor and office sets, a public-level set comprised of a cafeteria and the daycare where backpacks are seen splitting in half, and the deck of the ship.
It was a massive undertaking spearheaded by the episode’s director Minkie Spiro. Spiro, along with Benioff and Weiss, worked closely with Riley and formed a tight-knit, collaborative community to create this sci-fi spectacle as realistically as possible.
“We’re not just collaborators. We’re friends, and we know how to work with each other. We understand the language that each other use and what we need from each other in order to do our own jobs,” Riley enthused. “But also, there’s a tremendous degree of trust there as well. We know on the day that each of us will turn up and bring the best that we can. It’s been a great honor to be part of the team, and that’s what it is. It’s a team.”
3 Body Problem season one streams exclusively on Netflix.
