The Expanse Meets War Of The Worlds In Netflix’s 8-Part Sci-Fi Series

Blending The Expanse’s appropriately expansive storytelling style with a plot about extraterrestrial contact that could compete with War Of The Worlds, one Netflix sci-fi series is among the streaming service’s most ambitious entries into the genre. Set in a future where the solar system is colonized by humans, The Expanse centered its story on political machinations between the Martian Congressional Republic on Mars and the United Nations of Earth and Luna.

Based on a novel series by author James S.A. Corey, The Expanse season 1 was a noir-inflected mystery that followed Thomas Jane’s cynical detective Josephus as he looked into shady political alliances, but the show’s focus soon expanded to make the series more of a space opera. By the end of its 62-episode run, The Expanse was hailed as the sci-fi genre’s answer to HBO’s Game of Thrones franchise thanks to its ambitious storytelling and even earned praise from original Game of Thrones author George R.R. Martin himself.

On the face of it, The Expanse’s futuristic story of space colonization might seem in no way similar to HG Wells’ iconic alien invasion story War Of The Worlds. Originally released in 1989, Wells’ seminal sci-fi disaster novel follows a nameless narrator as Martians invade England, and the book has been adapted to the screen many times. Although these stories might not sound even remotely connected, Netflix’s sci-fi series 3 Body Problem perfectly mixed The Expanse’s ambitious storytelling style with the themes of War Of The Worlds.

3 Body Problem Blends The Expanse’s Ambitious Scope With An Alien Contact Story

Image courtesy of Everett Collection

Named after a famous real-life problem in Newtonian physics, the 3 Body Problem is based on the novel series Remembrance of Earth’s Past by Liu Cixin. The show initially centers on ‘The Oxford Five,” a group of academics from a diverse array of disciplines who are tasked with working out how to handle humanity’s first contact with an extraterrestrial species. However, as the plot shifts to focus on the perspective of astrophysicist Dr. Ye Wenjie, it becomes clear that the show’s story is more complicated than it seemed.

Even in an era where shows like Apple TV’s Foundation and Silo, Prime Video’s Tales from the Loop, and Netflix’s own earlier cyberpunk series Altered Carbon all made complex sci-fi lore and world-building a more common presence on the small screen, 3 Body Problem was notable for the sheer complexity of its plotting. Far from the simplistic, straightforward depiction of alien invasions seen in many shows and movies, the Netflix hit used an array of main characters to illustrate its story from numerous angles.

3 Body Problem’s Complex Plotting Could Be The Show’s Ultimate Undoing

Image courtesy of Everett Collection

This was a big part of the reason that 3 Body Problem was such a critical hit, as reviewers praised the show for its immersive complexity. Like the breakout hit from its creators David Benioff and DB Weiss, HBO’s Game of Thrones, 3 Body Problem was unafraid of throwing viewers in at the deep end and expecting them to keep up with a rapidly expanding, unspooling storyline. This was ultimately part of the show’s appeal.

That said, this same approach could eventually come back to bite the creators of the series. As 3 Body Problem’s story continues, the show will likely need to expand its storyline further, much like both The Expanse and Game of Thrones did. The problem is, The Expanse started small so it could afford to tell a bigger, more ambitious sort of story later.

Game of Thrones, meanwhile, famously earned the ire of fans and critics alike when its series finale failed to pay off its lengthy story precisely because it had too many characters, too many subplots, and too much lore for its own good. Thus, while it was initially impressive that Netflix’s 3 Body Problem mixed The Expanse and War of the Worlds, keeping the show’s story from feeling too loose could prove a challenge.

Release Date

March 21, 2024

Network

Netflix

Directors

Minkie Spiro, Jeremy Podeswa, Derek Tsang Kwok-Cheung, Andrew Stanton

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