This Benedict Wong TV Show Low-Key Made Him Play Himself
In between starring as a loyal friend to Benedict Cumberbatch’s Doctor Strange in Marvel’s movies, Benedict Wong is also one of the leads in Netflix’s big sci-fi hit of last year.
A superhero’s job in Marvel movies may require most of its actors’ time, but not everyone is stuck in the MCU world.
Like many other co-stars that will appear in Marvel’s upcoming blockbusters Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars, Benedict Wong is booked and busy filming successful movies and shows outside of the MCU, including Netflix’s sci-fi smash hit Three Body Problem.
Coming as another collaboration of Game of Thrones’ creators David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, the fantasy drama was meant to become another highlight of Wong’s career — especially since his character is, well, his literal TV version.
Benedict Wong Says ‘Three Body Problem’ Creators Copied His Wikipedia Page for Clarence’s Inspiration
Even though Netflix’s show is based on Liu Cixin’s novel series, Three Body Problem’s helmers wanted to have Benedict Wong on board so much that they were eager to make his character more similar to the actor himself — and even borrow some real-life facts about Wong for Clarence "Da" Shi’s image.
As the actor once revealed in an interview with Radio Times ahead of the show’s season 1 release last year, his character had a biography pretty resembling to his own, with Clarence being born in a Hong Kong family and then moving to Manchester, only to settle in London several decades later.
“I said, 'Guys, it sounds an awful lot like me.' And then they just confessed, 'Yeah, we copied your Wikipedia page’”, Wong admitted.
However, the actor soon realised that the entire thing might not be that easy to play as it initially seemed.
“I started to dive into the first book, and the second, and I just thought, 'This is so dense.' I had to keep going back to the chapters. I was getting really confused with the game. I was like, 'How [are they] going to film this? It almost feels unfilmable”, Wong added.
Will There Be More Seasons for ‘Three Body Problem’?
With creators like David Benioff and D.B. Weiss being at helm, the show had a high chance to become Netflix’s constant hit for years to come since the very beginning, and it will remain one for at least a couple of seasons more.
For now, Three Body Problem is renewed for seasons 2 and 3, with both instalments being filmed back-to-back right now.
However, there’s no plan to continue with the series after the third season which, according to Three Body Problem’s showrunners David Benioff, D.B. Weiss and Alexander Woo, will conclude the trilogy adapting the original book series.
Three Body Problem’s season 2 doesn’t have a premiere date yet, but it’s expected to arrive on Netflix sometime in late 2026.
