New Netflix series from Game of Thrones showrunners gets director

Game of Thrones prequel
(Image credit: HBO)

Netflix's upcoming sci-fi series Three-Body Problem has found its director, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Derek Tsang will direct the first episode of the series.

The Hong Kong filmmaker is known for his 2019 movie Better Days, which was nominated for Best International Feature Film at the Oscars. David Benioff and D.B. Weiss are serving as showrunners, while Alexander Woo is on board as co-creator, writer, and executive producer. 

Woo previously wrote several episodes of the HBO series True Blood and he was a showrunner on The Terror season 2, while this is Benioff and Weiss' first stint as showrunners since Game of Thrones ended in 2019. No casting announcements have been made yet, although The Hollywood Reporter reports that Eiza González has been in talks to star. 

Based on the Chinese novel of the same name by Liu Cixin, Three-Body Problem is set in a future where humanity discovers we aren't alone in the universe and must prepare for the arrival of an alien force from a distant world. 

The title refers to aliens' star system, which is made up of three stars orbiting each other in such a way that an Earth-type planet between them keeps suffering extreme hot and cold temperatures, repeatedly wiping out its intelligent civilizations. The book won the Hugo Award in 2015, becoming the first Asian novel to do so. 

This isn't Benioff and Weiss' only project in the works at Netflix, either – they executive produced The Chair, a comedy drama starring Sandra Oh and they're adapting the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Overstory with Hugh Jackman.

While we wait for Three-Body Problem to arrive on the streamer, check out our list of the best Netflix shows that you can watch right now.

Entertainment Writer

I’m an Entertainment Writer here at GamesRadar+, covering everything film and TV-related across the Total Film and SFX sections. I help bring you all the latest news and also the occasional feature too. I’ve previously written for publications like HuffPost and i-D after getting my NCTJ Diploma in Multimedia Journalism.