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Sean Bean Joins BBC One's World War II Drama
Game of Thrones star Sean Bean has joined the cast of World on Fire, BBC One's World War II drama also starring Helen Hunt and Lesley Manville. A veteran of both the big and small screens, the ubiquitous Bean's breakthrough role came in the British TV movie Sharpe's Rifles, a historical drama set during the Napoleonic Wars. Bean would reprise the role of Sharpe in a series of TV movies ending with 2008's Sharpe's Peril.
Having established himself as a small-screen presence, Bean then moved on to movies, landing the role of Boromir in Peter Jackson's sprawling Lord of the Rings trilogy. Bean played Odysseus in Troy opposite Brad Pitt, and later played the villainous Peter Howe opposite Nicolas Cage in National Treasure, as well as numerous other character parts in movies as diverse as Silent Hill, The Hitcher and Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief. But Bean's most famous role came back on the small screen, when he played the doomed Ned Stark on season 1 of HBO's Game of Thrones, a part that would launch one of the most prevalent of all internet memes.
Bean has seen more than his fair share of fictional war throughout his career, and he'll once again face global conflict in his new upcoming project. BBC One announced that Bean has joined the cast of World on Fire, a drama series set during the opening stages of World War II. Written by award-winner Peter Bowker, the series is described as "an adrenalized, emotionally gripping and resonant drama" telling the intertwining stories of multiple characters from various nations involved in the conflict.
In addition to Bean, the series' cast includes Oscar-winner Helen Hunt as well as Phantom Thread star Lesley Manville. Other previously named cast members include Jonah Hauer-King (Little Women), Julia Brown (The Last Kingdom), Zofia Wichłacz (Warsaw 44) and Brian J. Smith (Sense8). In a statement, Bean said he looks forward to starring in the new series, saying, "Peter Bowker’s study of the human stories that thread through this huge global conflict is fascinating and something I look forward to being part of on screen."
Indeed, Bean is no stranger to appearing in epic, complex on-screen stories. Of course, Bean has also established a reputation for dying on-screen that is unparalleled. In an interview, the actor named his death scene in Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring as his favorite on-screen demise. It will be interesting to see if World on Fire gives him a chance to add to his repertoire of memorable deaths, or if this time he gets to live.
