Netflix's Twisted, Dystopian Thriller '3%' Has Such A Dark Story To Tell

If your marathon-watching taste is craving some dystopian thriller flavor, you're in luck, because after an eight-episode first season, the Netflix original Brazilian sci-fi, 3%, is returning for Season 2. It is set to be released on April 27, presumably as another single digit set of episodes, which means dedicated watchers will finish the season in one sitting, and will be begging for Season 3 before the ending credits roll. So, will 3% Season 3 happen?

Netflix has yet to renew it, which is fine because it only just returned. Give it some time! However, the Season 1 finale and the trailer for Season 2 propose that the story of 20-year-olds joining forces to upheave a city from its roots a capitalist, patriarchal, elitist society in exchange for freedom from squalor has only just begun.

Although its ominous, futuristic blood makes it one of the many productions of its genre to line up behind Katniss Everdeen and The Hunger Games, it has made a name for itself as Netflix's first Brazilian series, and one that, despite its lack of box office funds, brings some compelling contrast with its dedication to character analysis and story.

It actually ended up being one of 2017's most popular Netflix shows worldwide, ranking number two on the list of “most devoured," which means most viewers watched at least two hours of it per sitting. That doesn't come as a surprise, though, because the show's production team didn't cut any corners with what they were given — it has all of the elements that make for a top notch watch — story, score, and shots.

Rather than taking the easy way out with a kill-or-be-killed plot line, the show's creator and writer Pedro Aguilera challenges the characters to the Process, which is full of intellectual trials and physical and emotional tests conducted to ensure only society's best of the best are admitted to join the three percent at the Offshore — the secluded island paradise where the perfect life awaits. And, although murder isn't expected of its contestants, the Process has a way of mentally taxing some of them to the point of killing.

In Season 1, Michele Santana (Bianca Comparato) and her fellow Inlanders (home of the other 97 percent) brave the Process, which isn't short of The Hunger Games clock arena-inspired disasters of its own, including the release of hallucination-inducing gasses and poison-filled capsules that attempt to keep the contenders from succeeding. Many of them don't — the Process and its elements being their ultimate demise.

With that being said, the series definitely isn't short of intriguing content, between its suspense-ridden story and developed character relationships — and, of course, somehow, in the midst of a societal war, there's room for the romance every good thriller craves.

Toward the end of Season 1, it is revealed that multiple of the characters, including the main character Michele, endured the Process as moles for the Cause, a revolutionary group that seeks to overtake the Process (think Mockingjay) and end it for good. Although Michele and most of her allies make it through until its end, their fates remain unclear in the season finale, and their desire (or lack thereof) to pursue a life with the three percent creates an unexpected divide among them.

The information available on Season 2 confirms that divide, and reveals that the coming episodes will explore it, as they follow the confrontation between the Cause and the Offshore. The trailer hints at the possibility of Michele switching sides and leaving the Cause, and shows a glimpse of a futuristic firearm standoff as well as some dangerous revolutionary strategizing. But the rest of the story is unknown.

What is known, however, is that the Offshore, which isn't depicted in Season 1, makes its debut in Season 2. And if viewers are just now being given a glimpse of the home of the three percent, there has to be more where that came from. So, if it's renewed, expect a new season around a little over year from now. Season 1 hit in November 2016, and Season 2 is April 2018 — so if Netflix sticks to that, Season 3 could land September 2019.