Warning: This article contains big spoilers from Netflix’s 3 Body Problem. Make sure you’ve seen episodes 1-4 before reading any further.
Given it comes from the showrunners of Game of Thrones, it’s maybe not unexpected that Netflix sci-fi series 3 Body Problem features a fair few deaths. However, that doesn’t make Jack Rooney’s brutal murder at the end of episode three any less shocking – and it turns out it was the same for actor John Bradley.
Although, after making it all of the way through eight seasons of Game of Thrones as the ever-reliable Samwell Tarly, Bradley tells 12DOVE he’s pleased he got a death worthy of the fantasy epic.
"I was a little bit gutted at first, I won't lie about that," he tells us. "But I think that it didn't take me long to realize that if there's one thing that those guys [showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss] do better than maybe anybody, it's a shock death. I mean, you think about Game of Thrones. So many of the moments that people remember were people dying when they weren't expecting them to, the Red Wedding and Joffrey dying, and things like that. So, it kind of felt like an honor to get a Benioff and Weiss death in the end."
Bradley’s character Rooney ends up at the sharp end of Tatiana’s blade (Marlo Kelly) after he comes too close to the truth about the San-Ti. He refuses to be part of the plan to work with them after he and Jin Cheng (Jess Hong) reach the next level of their video game.
The actor goes on to add that he views Rooney’s fate as an act of faith from the showrunners. "I’m very flattered to think that they gave that character three episodes and I'd like to think that they had the faith in me that there's not a lot of time, but people would care and I could forge a relationship with an audience in that short space of time," he continues. "So, I went from feeling ever so slightly put out to just being very flattered."
And as his co-star Alex Sharp, who plays scientist Will Downing, puts it to him: "You’re sci-fi’s Sean Bean."
For more on 3 Body Problem, find out why it was an "easy yes" for Bradley to work with the showrunners again and why Benedict Wong felt a bit like he was being "stalked" when he read the scripts. You can also check out our 3 Body Problem ending explained and our breakdown of 3 Body Problem season 2.
