“Game of Thrones” creators David Benioff and D.B. Weiss pulled out all the stops for their new series “3 Body Problem” — which even included asking Barack Obama to appear in the Netflix fantasy about an alien invasion.
“He did sign a very funny note though, when we tried to get him for a cameo,” Benioff told USA Today about trying to get the former president on board. “It was to the effect of, ‘In case there ever is a real alien invasion, I think I should probably save myself for that crisis.'”
Weiss added, “He wants to keep his powder dry in case there’s a real thing.”
Asking Obama to cameo in “3 Body Problem” isn’t as random as it might sound. In 2017, the former president told The New York Times he was a major fan of Liu Cixin’s novel, on which the series is based.
“The scope of it was immense. So that was fun to read,” Obama said. “Partly because my day-to-day problems with Congress seem fairly petty — not something to worry about. Aliens are about to invade!”
Obama is also a great admirer of Benioff and Weiss’ work, asking the showrunners for advanced screeners of “Game of Thrones” Season 6 while he was the commander-in-chief. Not even journalists and industry insiders received episodes of that season in advance, as HBO wanted to keep the fate of Westeros — and a sleeping Jon Snow —under unprecedented levels of secrecy.
“3 Body Problem” premieres on Netflix on March 21.
