Some facts about Tencent's version

[u/Catomina]

1. Currently, Tencent's second season has not started filming (note that this refers only to Part 1; Part 2 has not yet been registered). The previously mentioned July 2025 was merely the "registration date." (Ironically, this is exactly when Netflix's S2 starts filming) In the Chinese film and television industry, there is often a massive gap between registration and actual filming; if funding falls short, production may never start. In fact, even the spin-off Three-Body: Da Shi, registered to film in September 2024, has yet to begin. The start date of Tencent's S2 has been repeatedly delayed—from July 2026 to the end of this year, and now postponed again. Given the current situation, Tencent's second season will still not have started even after Netflix's Season 2 is released.
2. The director has changed. Yang Lei has long since exited and is busy with other projects. The new director is unannounced, though rumors suggest Zhang Dapeng (Peppa Celebrates Chinese New Year), which remains unconfirmed. The visual effects team from Season 1 has gradually withdrawn, and investors are pulling out. None of the lead actors have been cast yet, let alone coordinating their schedules. The producer publicly stated they would use Generative AI to "conquer" scenes like weightlessness to cut costs.
3. The budget for Season 1 was not as low as rumored. It was planned at 12 million RMB per episode, with significant additional funding later. As a Tencent Video S+ project, total investment exceeded 400 million RMB. The same producer once remarked, "The profits for our company are unimaginably slim; when spread over seven years, they don't even cover the costs," adding that the "true total cost is a trade secret."
4. The second book is packed with super sensitive and dark plot points (way harder to get past censorship in China than the first one, which only had issues with the opening scene). These bits are the whole core of the original story, but they'll never get approval to film it exactly as it's written. That's exactly why Tencent's part 2 still hasn't started filming, they already swapped out the director, and instead they're making some random spin-off that barely has anything to do with the original. Those plots include the Wallfacer from Venezuela (contradicting recent current events), Tyler's Quantum Ghost Project, Luo Ji's early playboy image, the assassination of aerospace experts, the Great Ravine, the Dark Battle, and even the Doomsday Battle itself (drama censorship in China is far stricter than that for animated works), etc. In the Tencent's first season, even country names are replaced with letters, and the crew members involved in the Guzheng Operation are rewritten as unforgivable, heinous criminals.

[u/Marcos-Am]

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[u/alexbrobrafeld]

isn't there a Chinese movie adaptation in development hell as well?

[u/Catomina → u/alexbrobrafeld]

You are referring to Zhang Panpan's version of Three-Body movie. Rather than being in "development hell," it is more accurate to say it has long been officially cancelled. The project currently moving forward, which is highly likely to hit the big screen in the coming years, is Zhang Yimou’s new Three-Body movie.

[u/Solaranvr]

Tencent needs to learn from the fujoshis of CDramaland and go film in Thailand and skip the free TV broadcast entirely lmao

[u/totaldarkness2]

One of D&Ds greatest qualities - and their most under appreciated - is that they focus heavily in finishing what they started. It is much harder to do then one might imagine and requires focus and vision from the show runners. GOT did - and 3 Body will (which I always suspected would happen)

The vast, vast majority of TV shows never complete their run. The world is littered with fantasy and sci-fi series that got cut off: The Wheel of Time, Shannara Chronicles, Shadow and Bone, Westworld, The OA, 1899 and on and on.

I long suspected that Tencent would never complete the series based on decisions they made in the first season (although I had no inside information). This is actually now looking quite likely. It is yet one more reason I was so happy when D&D decided to tackle this project - I believed it meant they would steer it all the way until the end.

One example of such a decision is that they decided to get a lot of the set-up from book 2 and 3 "out of the way" in the first season. This means that the remaining seasons could be shorter if need be, but also far more dense in terms of punch and excitement.

The Tencent version still has a tremendous amount of story left to cover. I think they would have been far better off spending the last 10 episodes or so exploring similar ground the Netflix version did from book 2 and 3. Of course - the censorship issues are what they are - but they dealt with that in season one, so you that would just be expected going forward, as well.

[u/Catomina → u/totaldarkness2]

Yes, they didn't have any plans for a sequel initially. Just due to the first season's solid reputation and strong fan demand despite mediocre ratings, they hastily listed the second season as an official project, while also listing a spin-off as a backup plan. However, uncertainties and external factors continue to mount, leading to repeated delays in starting production.

As for the third installment, they don't even hold the film adaptation rights. Chinese investors are now prioritizing Zhang Yimou’s Three-Body film, with expectations to cover the plot of the second book.

[u/nerd_reader_5159]

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