3 Body Problem Cast Hype New Space Epic from Game Of Thrones EPs [SXSW]

3 Body Problem is a new science fiction epic series making its debut at the 2024 South By Southwest festival before it drops on Netflix. Based on the popular trilogy of books from Liu Cixin, Remembrance of Earth’s Past, the series is the first production under Game of Thrones creators David Benioff and D.B. Weiss’ overall deal at Netflix. The pair are joined in their Showrunner and Executive Producer duties by Alexander Woo (The Terror: Infamy, True Blood). The series stars a multi-cultural cast of characters played by Jovan Adepo, Rosalind Chao, Eiza González, Jess Hong, Marlo Kelly, Alex Sharp, Sea Shimooka, Zine Tseng, Saamer Usmani, Doctor Strange‘s Benedict Wong, and Game of Thrones favorites John Bradley, Liam Cunningham, and Jonathan Pryce.

A decision made by a young woman during the 1960s Chinese Cultural Revolution will reverberate across time and space, creating unexpected consequences for the entirety of the human race. With settings that include China, Britain, and a virtual reality world, the story of the 3 Body Problem takes place over the decades and planes of existence. The series will focus on different periods in Earth’s history as humanity faces a different kind of alien invasion that isn’t a quick and brutal attack, but a slow impending doom the population is aware of. As the laws of nature begin to unravel, a group of brilliant scientists must work together to confront the greatest threat in human history.

Screen Rant interviewed the stars of 3 Body Problem Hong, Adepo, Gonzalez, Sharp, Bradley, Wong, Tseng, Chao, and Cunningham at SXSW to answer questions about their upcoming series. The group discussed the epic scale of their new series, the pedigree of their showrunners and its thematic connections to Game of Thrones, and the depth of the story they’re trying to tell.

3 Body Problem Cast Gives Their Best Elevator Pitch Of The Show

Screen Rant: Congratulations on this series. It’s one of those shows that is so ambitious, so complex, and so elaborate. Who wants to describe, in 30 seconds, what the show is about?

Jess Hong: 3 Body Problem is what I like to call a philosophical sci-fi. It’s a drama wrapped up into a mind-bending, genre-bending sci-fi experience that combines epic scale, spectacle, and mind-bending craziness with beautiful, nuanced relationships, complex characters, and hopefully characters that you can all relate to and follow through a crazy wild ride.

Liam Cunningham: The show is about the future of the human rights. I don’t think there’s anything more dramatic than that sentence. And it’s multi-layered. In fact, when we’re usually asked, the first thing that happens is there’s a sharp intake of breath. “What’s it about?” And then you have to kind of launch into it. It’s the biggest story that could ever happen to the planet. Are we going to survive as a species or not.

And then, we have a beautiful layer with our “Oxford 5” as we call them with their interpersonal relationships, and also that they’re five of, probably, the most clever people on the planet. And as our show progresses, you see that they are pulled into a world where they have the responsibility for saving our race from this existential threat. So that leads to a lot of drama.

You’re all physicists. You met at Oxford. You’re all basically Oppenheimers, I would say. How much research are you doing to know what you’re talking about? What is the process of gearing up to play one of the smartest people in the world?

Jess Hong: This is the most intellectual character I’ve played. But there are different kinds of smart in the world.

John Bradley: Well, I tried my hardest to get my head around the sort of scientific principles at play, and I bought a couple of books. I struggled with it so much. I couldn’t get it into my mind. It was still useful because I was reading them thinking, “Well, I’m a million miles away from understanding this. But Jack Rooney understands all this.” And it really gave me an insight into just how smart he is. And once you know that about him, all of the rest of his character falls into place about how comfortable he is with himself, about how robust his ego is given where he’s come from. So even though I failed miserably to understand physics, I succeeded quite well through that in understanding Jack Rooney a bit more.

Eiza González: I think it’s just complex. At the end of the day, you’re balancing so many things at once. You’re wanting to create complex characters that have a sense of reality that feel sort of, not to be redundant, relatable. And at the same time, it feels organic and seamless when it comes to science. Personally, for me, obviously, English is my second language, and is always a little bit harder. There are certain sentences that I would never ever use in my entire life. So I had to do an extra amount of work in the sense of memorizing stuff. So it felt as seamless as them and obviously Auggie is an incredibly talented, nano technician.

She’s a pioneer in her field, and that, at the end of the day, needs to feel something like quite seamless. But you’re also managing one hundred other things performance-wise at once, right? Everyone’s going through their journey. So it’s complex, but we were also lucky enough to have an incredible team supporting us. We have some of the best showrunners in the world. We have a group of scientists really come and give us in-depth knowledge and information whenever we were feeling a huge question mark, and we had great guidance through it all.

Game of Thrones and 3 Body Problem Share Surprising Similarities

Benioff and Weiss brought us one of the greatest TV shows of all time. You’ve got Alexander Woo behind another one of the greatest TV shows in modern times, True Blood. I think one of the innate expectations from fans is that this is a big follow-up to Game of Thrones. Do you think this series shares any of the same DNA, besides the literal DNA of Benioff and Weiss?

Alex Sharp: One of the first things I thought when I read the scripts was how intricate and moving the different interpersonal relationships were, and how fleshed out a lot of the characters were. And that was one of the things I loved about Game of Thrones was that there were dragons, that it was very otherworldly — it was a spectacle — but you’re following these characters through epic journeys, both in the literal sense of sort of traversing wildlands and creatures, but also in terms of their character development.

The second I read the script, I felt that and that’s why I fell in love with Will’s, my character’s psychological, spiritual journey that he goes on. I was really moved by it, because it was kind of this very simple, but profound, quite intimate human story in this epic scope of spectacle, and I think that’s what they do best.

Liam Cunningham: One hundred percent. When George R.R. Martin wrote Game of Thrones, he specifically wrote it to be unfilmable. So, these two insane characters, David and Dan, went and visited him and said, “We’d like to film this,” and he was convinced by them. So, they didn’t rest on our laurels. It could have been very easy to lay on a beach in Malibu after the success of Game of Thrones, and they turned around and go, “Let’s do this to ourselves again.”

They have adapted this incredible story, and they have such a concern for the characters and the humanity of it. This is a huge project, but it’s nothing without you feeling some sort of emotion and sympathy for the people involved in it. And that’s what they’re incredibly good at.

How The Stars Prepared For 3 Body Problem

What was the process of you guys each wrapping your head around this series? And also, what excited you most about coming on board?

Rosalind Chao: For me, working with David, Dan, and Alex absolutely hands down. I’m so excited about it. I’ve never seen Game of Thrones. Don’t tell anybody. But they are the best bosses ever. The script was phenomenal. And the chance to play. Yeah, I mean, I’d have to be crazy to say no.

Benedict Wong: When I first met Dan, David, and Alex, I was very sort of suspicious why three showrunners had taken aboard this secret project. It’s just the overall magnitude of this, and it’s a heavy gauntlet to pick up. They’ve got an incredible pedigree, and I’m just very proud to stand alongside this incredible ensemble.

Rosalind Chao: Also, we’ve been dying to work together for years.

Zine Tseng: I feel like working with Dan and David and Alex is a very humble and precious experience because it feels secure and in good hands because they have the clearest vision of the vas story throughout the time and space.

I would love to hear what you think is going to surprise people the most about this series.

Rosalind Chao: I think what’s going to surprise people the most is the fact that it’s not just sci-fi. There’s a love story. You need to see all the episodes. I cried. I gasped. I’ve read the script, and yet, honestly, there are so many layers. It’s historical. It’s a love story. It’s like an indie movie. There’s just so much to it, and I think that’s going to catch people by surprise because they think they’re just gonna see, I don’t know, E.T. or something. And it’s so not that. These guys are so brave, and they made all of us brave, don’t you think? I feel like I’m a different person after working with them. Truly.

Benedict Wong: There’s just sort of constant questions you’ll always be asking—the audience will be. Who they empathize with. The layers of humanity. It is about this existential threat that looms upon us and now we question our humanity and whether or not it is worth saving.

Zine Tseng: I would say the details because those guys are very good at planting surprises and Easter eggs in the series. It’s like an investigation. Especially when watching a second time.

Benedict Wong: Just to add an Easter egg. This is Zine’s screen debut. And it’s just incredible.

Zine Tseng: One more surprise.

Liam Cunningham: There’s a huge surprise coming in Episode Five. You gotta stick with us. There are jaw-dropping moments in this. Rosalind is quite right. It’s very easy to put it in the genre of science fiction. We have very, very expensive science fiction backdrop to a very human story that is driven and it is, are we going to have a planet to be on? Are we going to have a human race?Are these wonderful people going to save humanity?