If you’ve spent any time on the internet, you know the ongoing joke: Sean Bean dies... a lot. From getting beheaded in Game of Thrones to catching arrows as Boromir in The Fellowship of the Ring (which Bean says is his favorite demise), to facing explosions or betrayal in countless other roles, he has practically built a résumé featuring some of the most memorable cinematic deaths. Now, as he promotes his upcoming 2025 TV series, the actor is sharing his thoughts—and yes, he’s aware of the hilarious memes surrounding his many deaths.
In a recent interview with Radio Times while promoting his gritty new BBC crime drama This City Is Ours, the Black Death actor opened up about his infamous onscreen death toll, and his reaction is both refreshingly self-aware and surprisingly zen. He shared:
I realised there were quite a lot of deaths without anybody needing to tell me. It was obvious. But I was playing some great characters, juicy, nasty pieces of work, and I thought I’d rather play them and die than play a mundane character that lives. But it came to a point with all the memes and I thought, ‘Maybe I should stop dying as much.’ But it doesn’t bother me any more. And, you know, I’m not really dead!
Classic Bean—delivering truth with a wink. It really makes sense. Whether he's dying as a hero (The Lord of the Rings or Game of Thrones), a villain (GoldenEye), or tragically (The Island, The Field, Patriot Games, and Equilibrium... should I continue?), the actor's onscreen deaths have become iconic. However, they have also overshadowed his exceptional ability to portray characters with real depth—often those that call for a memorable exit.
It turns out Bean never set out to be the guy who dies in every movie; it just kind of happened. When you’re constantly cast as intense, morally gray, or straight-up doomed characters, it comes with the territory. And while it might’ve once not given him pause, in recent years, reportedly, he’s begun to turn down roles where he dies—just to mix things up. And who can blame him? At this point, audiences start counting down the moments the second he walks onscreen.
Still, there’s something endearing about the fact that the South Yorkshire native, despite all the viral jokes and cinematic send-offs, has kept his sense of humor—and more importantly, his love for complex characters—fully intact.
Set in the heart of Liverpool, This City Is Ours is a gripping crime drama that showcases the best of British TV. The show revolves around Michael (James Nelson-Joyce), a guy caught up in a dangerous drug-smuggling operation while trying to create a better life with the woman he loves, Diana (Hannah Onslow). Sean Bean plays Ronnie Phelan, Michael’s mentor and the brutal gang leader pulling the strings, all while getting his son Jamie (Jack McMullen) ready to take over the family business.
Will Sean Bean make it through in one piece in this new show from the BBC? Guess we’ll have to wait and find out! If you’re curious about how to watch the show, you can stream all the episodes online on BBC iPlayer. The whole eight-episode series dropped as a box set on March 23.
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