3 Body Problem portrays a fictional past, present, and future wherein Earth encounters an alien civilisation from a nearby system of three sun-like stars orbiting one another, a representative example of the three-body problem in orbital mechanics.

A big budget production, created, produced, and written David Benioff and D.B. Weiss of Game of Thrones fame along Alexander Woo of True Blood - 3 Body Problem promises to be one of Netflix's biggest releases of the year.

The storyline, which is adapted from a Chinese novel of the same name, features some familiar faces from Game of Thrones including John Bradley and Irish actor Liam Cunningham.

On top of this, Marvel superstar Benedict Wong along with Alex Sharp, Zine Tseng and Jess Hong make up the cast of one of Netflix's most hyped releases this year.

Speaking on how 3 Body Problem came about, Cunningham makes it sound almost casual: "Firstly, as they say in the old Hollywood genre, I was in 'advanced talks' to do another job.

"I got a phone call from David and Dan and they said ‘you’re not going with them you’re coming with us!” and I said ‘okay’. The phone call was about a minute long and then I hung up and went ‘What did I do that for? This could be a week’s work!’."

However, Cunningham was grateful to realise that the role entailed far more than a weeks' work: "Then I saw this epic- of epic proportions, and realised that they had these parts written for the two of us" Cunningham says, nodding to his co-star Benedict Wong.

"So I have a big Dublin head on me in this thing and we have Mr Manchester over there to the right. That’s how we ended up doing it really. Not much intellectualisation about the whole thing".

Cunningham and Wong are not the only cast members who had the role written around them, with Manchester United fan John Bradley also in mind when the show was created.

However, with Bradley's role- there's one critical twist: "Quite a lot it is based on me. But to make Jack a Man City fan felt very cruel".

"It was tortuous for me to be in my character’s dream home but surrounded by all this stuff that was Man City blue made me almost sick to my stomach".

However Bradley does add: "Getting back with David and Dan- it was one of the greatest privileges of my career to work with them once, to work with them twice seems more than like a dream come true!"

"I remember when they texted me and said: Liam’s going to be in it. I thought ‘oh awesome. And then they said ‘He’s going to play Wade’.

"Knowing Wade from the books I wouldn’t have Liam in mind when I was reading the books but when they said he Liam was playing wade I thought ‘Oh perfect ye’re geniuses!’

"He brings so much to it. He did such a commanding, wonderful performance from him. As soon as you know an actor like Liam is going to take on a character you know he’s going to elevate it off the page".

3 Body Problem. Liam Cunningham as Wade in episode 105 of 3 Body Problem. Cr. Chris Baker/Netflix © 2024

When asked how to describe the genre of this "Epic of epic proportions" - the cast are in disagreement, however the one thing they can all settle on, is that it doesn't quite have genre.

"Mysterious philosophical sci-fi with some dry humour!” Kiwi Jess Hong says.

Cunningham chips in: "It’s very easy to slip it into Scifi.. Because if you go into the science fiction section Hodges Figgis - that’s where you’ll find it".

Wong adds thoughtfully: "It begins as a thriller and then as it unravels, it genre bends. It’s all human stories but then there’s the sci-fi element with the game that takes us into various different worlds".

Cunningham reflects saying: "It's very important the reality of our situation and the reality of our world. I think it’s very important that we drag science into it because it’s the future of the human race.

"The only thing that gonna save us in our story is the human race coming together with science to try and defeat an existential threat".

The Dublin actor add somewhat tongue in cheek, that if the show were to become a reality however- he doesn't think alien life would stick around on earth too long.

"If an alien ship came down and the clouds opened up like that the aliens got their binoculars and had a look I think that the aliens would close the windows, close the doors and get out of here".

3 Body Problem is now available to stream on Netflix.