Based on Chinese science fiction writer Cixin Liu’s Remembrance of Earth’s Past trilogy, Netflix’s 3 Body Problem follows a close-knit group of phenomenal scientists who join forces with a nontraditional detective to confront the “greatest threat in humanity’s history.”

“When I was reading the book, I didn’t know that I would be playing the young Ye Wenjie character,” Zine Tseng told Blavity. “And before that, I learned that Netflix was going to make this into a series. I was already drawn to young Ye Wenjie’s whole being, so I’m so lucky to play her and the biggest challenge after that was that I had to go back to the books and relate it to the script.”

“And also work with Derek Zang, the director, and the showrunners very closely about building the story and digging into the events, the huge events that most of them are life-threatening, and I had to stay in the sadness for so long. That was my biggest challenge,” she added.

For her co-star, Rosalind Chao, joining the project almost didn’t happen, but luckily, fate was on her side.

“I can’t point to one moment,” she said when asked what the most memorable part of bringing her character, Ye Wenjie, to life was. “I can point to the overall arc of the character and the fact that I feel like it was kismet and seemed like it wouldn’t have been possible had they approached me about playing her earlier. They bent over backwards to make this work, and the project overall made me feel like anything was possible.”

The series’ essential theme is survival; all the characters fight to achieve this.

“I know what he’s fighting for,” Liam Cunningham said of his character, Thomas Wade, the detective tapped to help. “I’m not sure what he’s fighting against. He’s fighting for the survival of the human race. They both are. The team is. Their drama comes from the fact that they enlist as we call them, the Oxford Five. These are beautiful, young, brilliant minds who don’t want to have anything to do with this. They’re scientists. They’re academics and all of a sudden we have to approach them to get their talents to assist them in saving humanity, which is a big ask, and Mr. Wade and Mr. Da Shi do not take no for an answer.”

“We first get introduced to Da Shi, who’s a counter-terrorist operative and I mean his animal is, he’s kind of a bear. He picks up the sand, and he locks on, and he gets his result. He follows his mark. He is the job,” Benedict Wong added. “I think on this sort of level, I mean, as much as we’re discussing the scientists, and they are the best of their ability, so Wade and Da Shi are brilliant at their jobs; they bring results. We strategize; we plan; we execute; we get the job done. And these are the two that you want in your corner.”

When asked to summarize the Oxford Five, which her character, Auggie Salazar, falls into, Eiza González calls them “the cool kids.”

“I just love the perfect balance of dynamics that we have in personalities,” she shared. “I love it because I watch them and it just feels like I’m with my friends. It’s these real, multi-faceted, funny, charismatic or not. … My character is a little bit of a bore, to be honest. But I just believe that it emulates reality and emulates real complex human beings because yes they’re scientists, but that doesn’t define who they are.”

Along with survival, the Oxford Five has members like Saul Durand, who embodies the notion of untapped potential, something that mirrors the lives of many everyday people.

“He is someone who is clearly very intelligent. He presents himself or he presented himself as being someone who has a lot of potential and has always shown signs of potential,” Jovan Adepo said. “By the time you see him at the end of the season, you see him get thrust into this position of authority that I don’t think he’s prepared for. He doesn’t believe he’s right for what it is. I think, perhaps, it’s a role that wouldn’t surprise his colleagues and friends because I think that they’ve always counted on him to lend his brain to equations or questions they’ve had, and by the time you see him in the end, he has no choice but to take that leap forward.”

Blavity also had the chance to chat with the last three characters of the Oxford Five, who gave more insight into the group’s powerful dynamics.

“Jin is super ambitious,” Jess Hong said of her character. “So she takes us on that journey because she just so relentlessly moves forward and tries to solve all of these problems. She does wear her heart on her sleeve, so I think it’s amazing that there’s a character who is intelligent and considered a genius of her generation, but she still moves through the world leading from her heart.”

“He just happened to be a bit of a boy genius who found himself at Oxford studying physics with all of these people and because of that he’s kind of got a much more practical approach to it; his survival instinct is to make money,” John Bradley said as he explained the background to Jack Rooney’s storyline.

From reading the script to signing on to the project, Alex Sharp cleared up the biggest misconception about breathing life into his role as Will Downing.

“When you first read a script, and you’re deciding about signing onto a project, you’re sort of hit with an initial impression of the character, and it’s quite hypothetical,” Sharp said. “It’s like they’re on the other side of a room, and the more work you do, the closer you get to them and hopefully you end up in the same place. Once I’d kind of finished the job, I had a very strong feeling of who he was.”

Netflix’s 3 Body Problem is now available for streaming.