Game of Thrones creators: Why we swapped dragons for aliens in a new series

Source image, Netflix

By Helen BushbyCulture journalist

David Benioff and DB Weiss are in a good mood. With Game of Thrones a distant memory, its creators are excited about their latest TV show, 3 Body Problem, and there's no dragon in sight.

Game of Thrones ended after 59 Emmy Awards and eight series in 2019. After shelving a Star Wars trilogy that year, Benioff and Weiss chose to adapt a best-selling Chinese science fiction novel.

Liu Cixi's The Three-Body Problem, published in 2008, sold nine million copies worldwide and won a Hugo Award.

Without spoiling the plot, it's about advanced aliens invading Earth. They are fleeing an unstable solar system with three suns orbiting each other – hence the name three-body problem.

The book features two key characters trying to thwart the aliens, a scientist and a detective, but the creators of the television series felt that this would not was not enough.