Stars compare their 3 Body Problem characters to their Game of Thrones characters
By Dan Selcke
Together with Alexander Woo, Game of Thrones showrunners David Benioff and Dan Weiss have a new show on the air: the first season of 3 Body Problem, a sci-fi series about humanity's first contact with an extraterrestrial species, is streaming now on Netflix, and we think it's a pretty good watch. And if the heady sci-fi concepts don't get you, maybe the Game of Thrones reunions will.
Although they don't share scenes together, a few actors from Game of Thrones were invited by Benioff and Weiss to join their new series. John Bradley, who played the mild-mannered Night's Watchmen Samwell Tarly on Thrones, plays Jack Rooney, a snack food entrepreneur who's a lot sassier and more confident than Sam ever was. Liam Cunningham, who played the kindly advisor Davos Seaworth on Thrones, is the hard-edged government operative Thomas Wade. And Jonathan Pryce, who played the religion leader the High Sparrow, is Mike Evans, an industrialist in charge of an alien-worshipping cult. Of all the Game of Thrones alumni on 3 Body Problem, Pryce's character is most similar to the person he played on the HBO show.
Bradley and Cunningham, on the other hand, are in uncharted waters. They compared their characters in a cute little joint interview. Watch below!
Game of Thrones alumni John Bradley and Liam Cunningham wanted to act together on 3 Body Problem
As Bradley correctly notes, Thomas Wade "swears a lot more than Davos." 3 Body Problem is a slow burn of a show, but by the end of the first season, Cunningham's performance as Wade was one of my favorites. I wouldn't have guessed this from watching Game of Thrones, but he's very good at playing an implacable as***le willing to do anything to protect humanity, even if that means going outside the bounds of decency.
The actors also shared how they felt when Benioff and Weiss called them up to ask them to be in the new show. Bradley was "just incredibly flattered to be asked, incredibly excited to find out what out what it was gonna turn into, what it was gonna be." Meanwhile, Cunningham sounds like he was brow-beaten (in a good-natured way, I'm sure) into accepting the gig. "I was in talks to do another big show. They rang me, and they went, 'That thing you're talking about? You're not doing it. You're coming with us.'" And so it came to pass.
Unfortunately, Jack Rooney and Thomas never actually share the screen together in 3 Body Problem. "That would've been lovely. I would have loved that," Cunningham said. "I think they're keeping that in their back pocket."
Bradley agrees that it would be nice to act together "one of these days," but if you watched the series, you might guess that it's not going to happen on 3 Body Problem...
To stay up to date on everything fantasy, science fiction, and WiC, follow our all-encompassing Facebook page and Twitter account, sign up for our exclusive newsletter and check out our YouTube channel.