(L to R) Liam Cunningham as Wade, Benedict Wong as Da Shi in ‘3 Body Problem’
Even if you are not familiar with Liu Cixin’s celebrated Chinese science fiction The Three-Body Problem, which is regarded as one of the genre’s most successful novels of the previous two decades, the cast and crew of its Netflix live-action adaptation are sure to make you feel at home. Two of the three showrunners for 3 Body Problem are David Benioff and DB Weiss who are best known for creating another novel-to-series adaptation; George RR Martin’s series of books A Song of Ice and Fire which was made into the cult classic TV show Game of Thrones. In front of the camera, we have an ensemble cast that includes GoT fame Liam Cunningham and Benedict Wong known for playing Wong in the Marvel Cinematic Universe since Doctor Strange (2016).
In GoT, Cunningham played Davos Seaworth, a humble and loyal counsellor to Stannis Baratheon; a much-beloved character. In 3 Body Problem though, the veteran — in what seems to be a diagonally opposite role — plays Thomas Wade, a charismatic, enigmatic leader of the world’s most elite intelligence operation.
Liam Cunningham as Wade in ‘3 Body Problem’
“If you were in trouble, he would be a good man to have on your side. He is not someone who you would like to be your enemy; he’s very driven and I’ll be very happy to buy him some drinks to keep him happy as he’s a very dangerous man. But he gets the job done,” says Cunningham.
Unlike Cunnigham’s Thomas Wade who seems to be a daunting figure and far from Davos or even himself personally, Wong seems to be playing a character who is quite analogous to his real-life persona. Wong plays Da Shi an ex-intelligence officer turned no-nonsense detective who investigates mysterious deaths within the scientific community. Considering Wong is from Greater Manchester, England, the North England accent Da Shi speaks adds to the relatability factor for the actor who had earlier had a tryst with Netflix when he played Kublai Khan in the series Marco Polo (2014–2016).
Benedict Wong as Da Shi in ‘3 Body Problem’
“Apart from the accent, similar to what Liam said, our characters will get the job done; we are very thorough. He works in counter-terrorism, he’s an operative but he is also quite a loner who has been fired and promoted as well. We can say he has failed upwards (laughs). There’s something about the way through which he gets the desired results,” says Wong only for Cunningham to interrupt and call the character trait of Da Shi to be “unconventional”.
Apart from the showrunners, Cunningham is also working with talents like John Bradley and Sir Jonathan Pryce who were also his GoT co-stars. “A reunion with the boys” is how Cunningham addresses the question of collaborating once again with them. “I can tell you how happy I was to be a part of this series because I was talking to some other people for another, big project and I got a phone call from the guys, David and Dan. They said ‘You’re not going with those guys, you’re coming with us’ and I, probably not so cleverly at that time, said okay,” says Cunningham further explaining why he initially felt so.
“I hadn’t seen the script, I didn’t know if they wanted me for a week, but I shut the other job down. Luckily enough, the part was Mr Wade and it was a fine decision. But I didn’t do it with a great deal of information at the beginning. That’s how much faith I have in them and how much I enjoy their writing and storytelling. So it was an easy decision to make perhaps not a clever one at that time and I’m so glad I did.”
(L to R) Liam Cunningham as Wade, Benedict Wong as Da Shi in ‘3 Body Problem’
Adding to it, Wong says, “The same sort of goes with me; when you see such names, including Alex (Alexander Woo) and know that three showrunners are involved to make this gigantic production you know that you’re definition on to a winner. Filming with them, there’s a level of shorthand that they know what they want and that’s fantastic to see.”
3 Body Problem is set to premiere on Netflix on March 21, 2024
