Director defends 'GOT' creators against cultural appropriation accusations in new show '3 Body Problem': They made the source material 'more accessible'

• Netflix's "3 Body Problem" is an adaptation of Chinese sci-fi writer Liu Cixin's prize-winning series.
• The series, showrun by David Benioff, D.B. Weiss, and Alexander Woo, has a global cast.
• Director Derek Tsang said that he doesn't think Benioff and Weiss engaged in cultural appropriation.

"Game of Thrones" creators David Benioff and D.B. Weiss' new show "3 Body Problem" is an adaptation of Chinese author Liu Cixin's science fiction trilogy "Remembrance of Earth's Past."

The first of those novels, "Three-Body Problem," was the first Asian novel to with the Hugo Award for best novel, and is on Mark Zuckerberg and President Barack Obama's recommended reading lists. But the highly anticipated adaptation of the series, from showrunners Benioff, Weiss, and Alexander Woo, turns Liu's novels into a story with more of a global focus. Per The Hollywood Reporter, the show's first season takes place primarily in the United Kingdom, in addition to China, the United States, and Panama.

Oscar-nominated director Derek Tsang ("Better Days"), who directs the series' first two episodes and hails from Hong Kong, told The Hollywood Reporter that he doesn't buy into calls of appropriation.

"I don't think people understand how monumental the novel is in our part of the world. It's considered the sci-fi novel that made people aware of what the genre can be," he said.

"But it's not an easy read, and I give a lot of credit to David and Dan for making it more accessible," Tsang continued. "They also wanted to be as authentic as possible, and there's no way I feel like they were appropriating our culture."

This isn't the first time that Liu's novels have been adapted for the small screen. Chinese conglomerate Tencent released a 30-episode Mandarin-language adaptation of the first novel in the series in 2023. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Tencent's series and the forthcoming Netflix one are frequently compared, with one viral online comment saying that Liu's story was intrinsically Chinese in a way that would be difficult to convey in a foreign adaptation.

Per THR, however, Yoozoo Gaming, the Chinese company that owns the rights to the series, specifically wanted Netflix to adapt the series in English (Netflix is not accessible in China).

"It's been our directive to do a global show from the beginning, and the Chinese-ness of the book's philosophy is preserved in some of the characters," Woo, one of the showrunners, said.