Game of Thrones star says it was the "easiest yes" to work with creators again on new Netflix sci-fi series: "I’ve got so much faith in them"
Exclusive: 3 Body Problem stars John Bradley and Liam Cunningham open up on reuniting with the Game of Thrones showrunners
Game of Thrones creators David Benioff and D. B. Weiss are back on screen again with another epic TV series. This time the pair have teamed up with writer Alexander Woo (True Blood) to bring 3 Body Problem to the big screen, a sci-fi show based on the novels by Liu Cixin – and they’ve brought some familiar faces along with them.
Liam Cunningham, who played Davos Seaworth in the long-running fantasy epic, and John Bradley, known best as the ever-reliable Samwell Tarly in Game of Thrones, are both among the cast. The former plays a hardened police detective investigating a string of scientist murders with some odd circumstances around them. Meanwhile, the latter is a member of a group of scientists known as the 'Oxford Five' who are brought together after one of their colleagues dies.
Speaking to 12DOVE, both actors share that saying yes to working again with the Game of Thrones showrunners was an easy decision.
"It was the easiest yes of my career really. Having done Game of Thrones with them for 10 years, I wasn't desperate to get back into a long-running drama series again," Bradley tells us. "Because it was a bit like, 'Well, that was my entire 20s. If I spend my entire 30s doing another one, I might start to feel a bit unfulfilled'. So I did some movies in between. But it was only because it was David and Dan asking that it was just an immediate yes."
Bradley, who appeared in all eight seasons of Game of Thrones, adds: "If it was anybody else asking me, I may have asked more questions about the character or what their vision for it was or how they see it going in the future. But because it was them, I've got so much faith in them, and had so much faith in them to write me a part that they knew I'd have fun with and I'd enjoy and I'd be fulfilled by."
He's not the only one either, as Cunningham shares that he was keen to work with the filmmaking duo again, even turning down another part in order to be able to do it. "I was talking about doing another project, I'd had a couple of meetings during COVID and I was talking quite seriously," he recalls. "Then I got a phone call from David and Dan saying, 'You're not going with them, you’re coming with us.' And I literally just went, 'Okay' and the conversation ended there."
The actor, who’s also known for his roles in Hunger and Clash of the Titans, then adds that the nerves started to kick in after that. He laughs: "It wasn't until I hung up that I kind of went, 'This could be two days work. This could be a week. I might have turned down something marvelous for something ridiculous.' And then the scripts arrived and I went, 'Oh, my God,' and this magnificent story with this character I wasn't expecting. It all turned out rather well."
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3 Body Problem is available on Netflix from March 21. For more, here’s our pick of the best Netflix movies and the best Netflix shows available now.
I’m the Deputy Entertainment Editor here at 12DOVE, covering TV and film for the Total Film and SFX sections online. I previously worked as a Senior Showbiz Reporter and SEO TV reporter at Express Online for three years. I've also written for The Resident magazines and Amateur Photographer, before specializing in entertainment.