, Columnist
The ‘3-Body Problem’ of Adapting Content Across Borders
From anime to the latest Netflix blockbuster, changing material can be a controversial subject. How much modification is acceptable?
Another round in the culture wars.
Photographer: Behrouz Mehri/AFP/Getty Images
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(Mild spoilers for Netflix’s ‘3-Body Problem’ follow.)
Like many readers of Liu Cixin’s Three-Body series of novels, I was a bit taken aback by some of the decisions made in Netflix Inc.’s adaptation of the 3-Body Problem. Where was Wang Miao, the character through whose eyes most of the mystery in the first book unfolds — and who was this researcher in his place? Why are the aliens no longer called Trisolarans? What’s Samwell Tarly from Game of Thrones doing there?!