Before the debut of Netflix's ambitious sci-fi series "3 Body Problem" on March 21, the critically acclaimed Chinese adaptation of Liu Cixin's novel "The Three-Body Problem" will premiere first for American audiences.

A poster for the NBCU debut of the "Three-Body" series. [Photo courtesy of Tencent Video]

This epic sci-fi drama, titled "Three-Body," will be available on Peacock, NBCUniversal's flagship streamer, starting Feb. 10, the first day of the Chinese Lunar New Year. All episodes will be accessible in the United States from that date.

Many sci-fi fans have lauded the Chinese series for its faithful adaptation of the book, which was the first Asian novel to win the Hugo Award. Since its debut in January 2023 on China's Tencent Video platform and Chinese Central Television (CCTV), the series has received high praise for its quality, imagination, humanity and artistry. As of Feb. 6, 2024, it has received a high score of 8.7/10 based on ratings from over 430,000 users on Douban, China's major review aggregation website.

As word-of-mouth spreads, it has ignited a "Three-Body" craze both domestically and internationally. On YouTube, the series "Three-Body" has amassed over 10 million views, with a total viewing time exceeding 2.6 million hours. On IMDb, each episode has received high scores above 7/10, with episode 29 achieving a rating of 8.5/10, the highest among all 30 episodes.

Tencent Video spent more than seven years crafting the series, blending international vision with Chinese culture. In their press release on Wednesday, Tencent Video stated that the series has introduced the Chinese style of "cosmic imagination" to the world, opening up new avenues for the overseas expansion of Chinese content and pop culture. In the future, Tencent Video aims to continue advancing artistic creation and technological innovation, further exploring and developing cutting-edge sci-fi series. This commitment will contribute to the growth of diverse television shows and the creation of more high-quality masterpieces, it stated.

Back in June 2023, Tencent Video and The Three-Body Universe, the rights-holding company, announced plans to develop two additional TV series. The first will be "Three-Body II: The Dark Forest," a sequel derived from the novel of the same name, which is the second installment in Liu Cixin's "Remembrance of Earth's Past" trilogy. The other will be a spin-off series focusing on police officer Shi Qiang, one of the protagonists in "The Three-Body Problem."

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