A Guide To Every Game Of Thrones Actor Who Shows Up In 3 Body Problem
This post contains spoilers for the first season of Netflix's "3 Body Problem."
It's been nearly five years since "Game of Thrones" viewers said goodbye (and, for some, good riddance) to the ambitious fantasy epic that headlined HBO's lineup for the better part of the 2010s. In that time, series co-creators David Benioff and D.B. Weiss started developing a deeply controversial (now nixed) series called "Confederate," executive produced "The Chair" (a short-lived Netflix show about academia), directed a Leslie Jones standup special, and came under scrutiny for their lack of preparedness while making "Thrones."
Now, after five years of work on varyingly successful stray projects, Benioff and Weiss are back with co-creator credits on another ambitious genre story based on multiple beloved books. This time around, they're putting their spin on Liu Cixin's "3 Body Problem" alongside co-creator Alexander Woo. While the two shows actually couldn't be more different, it's impossible not to view this latest huge project in comparison to their last massive undertaking — in part because so many "Thrones" actors pop up in their new show. In season 1, we've counted at least five "Game of Thrones" alumni who made the jump from Westeros to the alien-plagued world of "3 Body Problem."
John Bradley
In "Game of Thrones," John Bradley played geeky survivor (and George R.R. Martin stand-in) Samwell Tarly, who was among the most easy-to-root-for characters in the entire sprawling epic. Though Sam wasn't perfect, he was an underdog on a hero's journey, and he quite literally lived to tell the tale of "A Song of Ice and Fire" once the series ended.
To say that Bradley plays against type in "3 Body Problem" may be inaccurate given that the "type" in question was established by his one famous role alone, but it feels true. Jack Rooney is a former scientific scholar who sold out to make millions with a snack company, and he's also a bit of a tool. His friends seem to think Jack has a good heart, and he's nice to them, but he's also a self-absorbed smart aleck who's prone to cracking the wrong joke at the wrong time — or, when it comes to the video game he and Jin (Jess Hong) play, hacking the wrong character at the wrong time. He's no Sam, but he does add a sense of fun to this largely straight-faced series.
Despite his status as an obnoxious wealthy man-child, Jack was a decent guy once, and he takes the noble final act of giving all of his money to his best pal Will (Alex Sharp) — a gesture befitting of House Tarly if ever there was one.
Liam Cunningham
In "Game of Thrones," Liam Cunningham's Davos Seaworth is a determined, scrappy, and humble man of principle who is best remembered for loving poor, doomed Shireen, hating "the Red Woman" Melisandre, and randomly suggesting Daenerys and Jon get married. Despite his relatively minor role among that show's grand cast of heroes, Davos made a huge impression, and Cunningham gave a captivating performance. Remarkably, Davos made it through the long night and was elevated to the position of Master of Ships, ending the series as one of the winners of the titular Game of Thrones.
In "3 Body Problem," Cunningham's character is, well, less heroic. After initially being introduced as the no-nonsense man giving orders to Benedict Wong's investigator, it soon becomes clear that Cunningham's Thomas Wade is a man with lots of power and resources and very little regard for individual lives. The ruthless leader of an MI6-like organization, Wade considers the San-Ti the enemy from the moment we meet him and has no time for philosophy or ethical debate. He oversees the destruction of a ship full of civilians and eventually puts together a scientific think tank with the aim of outwitting the San-Ti.
Wade's take-no-prisoners approach to life is already catching up with him, as the San-Ti representative Sophon terrorizes him in the season premiere, threatening to surveil him (at the very least) for the rest of his life. Honestly, Wade probably deserves it, and I'm pretty sure Davos would've killed him too if given the chance.
Jonathan Pryce
When it comes to recurring guest actors employed with efficiency, they don't get much better than Jonathan Pryce. In "Game of Thrones," the Tony-winning actor appeared in the show's fifth and sixth seasons, playing a strange spiritual leader called The High Sparrow in what ultimately became one of the series' more tedious plotlines. The High Sparrow, audiences eventually learned, was a fanatical religious leader with an especially archaic sense of justice who was stealthily taking over King's Landing. Characters including Lancel and Tommen fell under his spell, but Cersei eventually blew the Sparrow to bits after he forced her into a public walk of shame a season earlier.
Pryce's talent as an actor is such that he made every scene featuring the pious and subtly manipulative High Sparrow infuriating. If the audience's impulse to want his character dead bleeds over into his role in "3 Body Problem," that's fine, because his character Mike Evans is a strange and unlikeable fellow too. Initially an avid environmentalist, Evans eventually takes over his father's oil company, insisting the best way to fight power is to "embrace power." That doesn't really work out for him in the long run, as Mike ultimately becomes a bit of a cult-y religious fanatic himself. This time around, though, Price's character is loyal to the alien overlords, who don't feel the same way about him.
Conleth Hill
"Game of Thrones" alum Conleth Hill's appearance in "3 Body Problem" is a bit harder to recognize than his former castmates'. In episode 3, Hill pops up in the high-tech video game the San-Ti sent to Earth, playing a Pope to whom both Jin and John have to make their final case about the orbit of the 3-body system. Hill is barely recognizable in a full beard and decadent holy garb, but "Thrones" fans who had a soft spot for Lord Varys might recognize his voice before the camera even reveals his face.
Hill made a strong impression across all eight seasons of "Game of Thrones" as the dangerous professional gossip known as the Spider. Varys' official title was that of Master of Whisperers, which put him in charge of a vast network of spies and allowed him unlimited leverage to get out of tricky situations. Well, almost unlimited: Varys finally met his fate late in the show's final season, when an increasingly unstable Daenerys executed him for secretly questioning her state of mind and ability to rule.
The actor makes great use of his screen time in "3 Body Problem." His Pope (who, for some reason, is in England) seems bored by the scientists' urgent explanation, and when they're done, he orders them to be burned at the stake for their heretical ideas. They survive, but he and the rest of the planet don't, and the game's guide explains that they were killed by a tri-solar day. Rest in peace, grumpy Pope!
Mark Gatiss
Another quick but entertaining episode 3 cameo features Mark Gatiss, the actor who Americans perhaps know best as the Mycroft to Benedict Cumberbatch's Holmes in the BBC series "Sherlock." Here, Gatiss appears briefly as Sir Isaac Newton, who along with Alan Turing (Gatiss' "Inside No. 9" co-star Reece Shearsmith) hopes to offer a major solution to the emperor of Shangdu (presumably Kublai Khan). The pair have invented a human computing system made of 13 million soldiers, one that can predict future chaotic eras in the short term, but has major long-term problems.
Newton's appearance is funny both because he and Turing seem vexed to see two other great thinkers showing up to steal their thunder, and because they're totally unaware that their extravagant and massive solution doesn't actually work. Given the colorful, modern language Newton uses when insulting Jin later, it seems that the pair are actually other real-life scientists taking on the names of their historical counterparts (just like Jin and John became Copernicus and Sir Francis Bacon), as opposed to apparent NPCs like the rest of the in-game characters.
Newton gets the coolest death of anyone on this list, as he's chopped in half by the Khan while floating in mid-air due to a zero-gravity eclipse. This is a great contrast to his role in "Game of Thrones," which is one of the most mundane characters in all of Westeros: banker Tycho Nestoris. Tycho represents the interests of the Iron Bank of Braavos and appears several times throughout the series when characters (Stannis, Mace Tyrell, Cersei) need some additional funds to keep their power intact.
Bonus: Alex Sharp
"Game of Thrones" fans have never actually seen Alex Sharp on screen, but the Tony-winning actor is technically a part of the George R.R. Martin TV universe. In 2019, he was cast alongside a star-studded ensemble (including Naomi Watts and Jamie Campbell Bower) for a "Game of Thrones" prequel pilot that never saw the light of day. The series, "Bloodmoon," was set to take place thousands of years before "Game of Thrones" and involves primitive Westerosi people and ancient White Walkers. It reportedly cost $30 million to make a single episode, and to this day, not even George R.R. Martin has seen it.
I imagine investing so much time and energy into a seeming slam-dunk of a pilot that went nowhere would be depressing, but several of the actors involved have gone on to do great work outside the "Game of Thrones" universe. After his award-winning breakout role in "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time" on Broadway, Sharp appeared in movies like "Trial of the Chicago 7" and "The Hustle," although "3 Body Problem" is his biggest TV role yet. His character, Will Downing, is the mopey heart of the series and the glue that holds all five scientist protagonists together. He may not have made it into "Game of Thrones," but (major spoilers through the season finale here) he did get a "Game of Thrones"-style death from Benioff and Weiss; Will's severed head was eventually launched into space in a complicated and seemingly unsuccessful plan to stop the San-Ti from invading.
"3 Body Problem" season 1 is now streaming on Netflix.