3 Body Problem: John Bradley addresses his character's shocking fate

3 Body Problem is a new sci-fi series on Netflix produced by Alexander Woo, David Benioff and Dan Weiss, the latter two of whom created Game of Thrones for HBO. Benioff and Weiss brought over a few Game of Thrones alumni to be part of the cast, including John Bradley, who you may remember as the brainy Night's Watchmen Samwell Tarly.

Speaking to GQ, Bradley said he had no reservations about once again working with Benioff and Weiss. "I think if anyone else would have asked me, I'd have asked more questions and thought about it for a bit longer. But because I know that they know me so well, having spent so much time with them and they're so good at writing to people's strengths— I just knew that I was going to have a lot of fun with it."

It was also cool that Benioff and Weiss wanted to give Bradley a new kind of character to play. In Game of Thrones and beyond, Bradley tended to play "[characters] who have big opinions about things, big ideas and valid ideas, but people underestimate them all the time and they never really give them the chance to say them on the platform." But in 3 Body Problem he plays a Jack Rooney, a blunted opinioned entrepreneur who used his knowledge of science to create a snack food empire. "But the thing about Jack is he doesn't wait for people to give him a platform. He'll just say stuff. I think that's a part of me, definitely, but I think it's the part of me that I wish that I was all the time."

So Bradley has a new character, a big new series, and is working with his old bosses, who produced the defining hit show of the 2010s. It's onwards and upwards from here, right?

SPOILERS AHEAD: John Bradley finally joins a great Game of Thrones tradition

3 Body Problem gave Bradley the opportunity to do something else he never did on Game of Thrones: die. His character is killed by a shadowy organization of people who worship an extraterrestrial species who are on their way to Earth to colonize our planet. Jack finds out about this, and rather than being on board, he openly says he wants nothing to do with it. Apparently, he knew too much.

Jack dies in Episode 3, which is pretty early on. "As any actor would, you'd like to stick around longer, you'd like to have more to do," Bradley told TV Guide. But he reasoned that being killed off in a shocking fashion by the Game of Thrones guys put him in pretty good company. "Going back to Ned Stark in Season 1 of Game of Thrones, if there's anything that David and Dan do arguably better than anybody else ever, it's shock deaths."

"If they give you a death, especially if it's a shock, it's because they have faith in you and your character that the audience will care about it. If they think an audience won't care, they won't invest enough time to kill you in such a shock way...For [Rooney] to go so early in Season 1 is basically David and Dan saying, we're going to play around with your expectation. And we're going to hopefully make you feel sad — they love that, it's their favorite thing."

For me, the difference between Ned Stark's death on Game of Thrones and Jack Rooney's death on 3 Body Problem is that I did really care about Ned by the time he died, whereas I think they bumped off Jack Rooney before I really got to know him. Also, Ned Stark seemed like he was the lead character while Jack was a member of the supporting cast. I think Jack's death was the only big complaint I had about 3 Body Problem.

But your milage may vary. Bradley, at any rate, was "delighted" with how the scene turned out. "I was really really happy with it and hope that it stays with people," he said. "I just hope they care."

Liam Cunningham was delighted to rejoin his Game of Thrones bosses on 3 Body Problem

Another Game of Thrones veteran who appears on 3 Body Problem is Liam Cunningham, who played the kindly advisor Davos Seaworth on the HBO show. Like Bradley, Cunningham plays against type; his character, Thomas Wade, is a gruff, borderline-insensitive government task-master, very much unlike the patient and empathetic Davos. And unlike Bradley, Cunningham's character survives the season.

Cunningham didn't think he would work with Benioff and Weiss again after he "broken-heartedly said goodbye" after the end of Game of Thrones. "I’m 172 years old, and a third of my career was with David and Dan – it was 10 years or whatever with David and Dan," he told Digital Spy. "And then several years later, you get a phone call, and you go, 'What? You want to see me again!' And, look, when you’ve got beautiful scenes and gorgeous words, and they’re so respectful of story and what we do as actors – and just respect for talented, creative people – it’s not difficult to say yes."

"Going back on set with those two, and the respect that they have, and the gentleness they have for the people in front of the camera – and then as a huge added bonus, to have that thrown into the mix – I fell on my feet in absolute delight."

I had a lot of fun watching Cunningham in this role. He kills it, and I'm already looking forward to seeing what he'll do when and if Netflix renews the show for a second season.

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