What's Next for All Your Favorite 'Game of Thrones' Stars
Now that Game of Thrones is officially over (brb, sobbing), fans must find a way to move on and look to the future. But hey, look on the bright side — just because GoT has ended doesn’t mean we have to say goodbye to our favorite stars from the near-decade-long fantasy drama. We now get to anticipate what’s next for Game of Thrones’ cast members, which means tuning into other onscreen ventures. Granted, inhabiting the Seven Kingdoms for as long as they did was a massive job and some of the series’ stars might need a bit of a breather. But here are a few announced projects from GoT’s cast to keep on your radar.
Emilia Clarke (Daenerys Targaryen)
Don’t fret; the Mother of Dragons won’t be out of commission long. In fact, she has two films slated for release this year: Above Suspicion, the true story of the first FBI agent convicted of murder, and Last Christmas, a Paul Feig-directed holiday rom-com due out November 8. Also announced? Clarke is set to star as poet Elizabeth Barrett in the based-on-a-true-love-story Let Me Count the Ways.
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Kit Harington (Jon Snow)
After eight years playing Jon Snow, Kit Harington needs a minute. Last June, he hinted to Entertainment Weekly that he was ready to take a break from the spotlight, saying, “I’d like to step away and enjoy the obscurity, cut my hair, make myself less recognizable as the character, and go do some other things with a completely new look and tone.” He echoed that sentiment to Vanity Fair earlier this year, expressing that his next role will be something out of (GoT) character. “I’m not really driven by wanting to play heroes right now,” he shared. “Every script I read at the moment is about characters who are deeply flawed and in some ways antiheroes. And that doesn’t necessarily go along with my casting, so it’s going to take a bit of work to fight against that.”
Peter Dinklage (Tyrion Lannister)
Ah, ‘tis sad parting ways with the always quick-witted Tyrion. In happier news, though, Peter Dinklage has a slew of stuff in the works. Admittedly, you’ll probably hear more of him than you will see of him in the next year or so — his next two credited projects are lending his voice to the animated Angry Birds 2 and The Croods 2. He’s also attached to The Thicket, a West Texas thriller about a boy who hires a bounty hunter to find his kidnapped sister, and The Dwarf, a drama about a Machiavellian dwarf who brings a kingdom to the brink of ruin. It’s also rumored that Dinklage is being “courted” by Warner Bros. for The Wild Bunch western remake directed by Mel Gibson.
Maisie Williams (Arya Stark)
Somewhere in the alternate universe where GoT lives on, Arya Stark is exploring whatever is west of Westeros. In this world, Arya’s real-life counterpart Maisie Williams is exploring new and exciting things, too. In April 2020, you can catch her on the big screen in Marvel’s The New Mutants. She’ll be playing Rahne Sinclair, aka Wolfsbane — a fittingly badass next move, if you ask us. She’s also set to star in the 1990s-set thriller The Owners about a young girl living in rural England whose boyfriend bungles a burglary heist (also based on a comic book, as it were).
Sophie Turner (Sansa Stark)
Praise be, Sansa got a worthy ending when she was deemed queen of the North. And while we wouldn’t have been mad if her reign made its way to a spinoff, we’re just as stoked to see her on the big screen June 7 in Marvel’s Dark Phoenix. In the film, Turner will reprise her X-Men: Apocalypse role of young Jean Grey. That’s not it, either. In Broken Soldier, Turner will play a teenage girl who befriends a war veteran with PTSD. In Girl Who Fell From the Sky, she’ll play real-life plane crash survivor Juliane Koepcke. And in Heavy, Turner will play a girl named Maddie caught up in a high-stakes drug-dealing revenge caper.
Plus, she’s got that whole being a newlywed thing to focus on, too.
Lena Headey (Cersei Lannister)
You didn’t really think a pile of rubble could keep Cersei down, did you? OK, so the evil queen didn’t actually survive — but Lena Headey is going on to thrive. She currently has three films in various stages of production. In The Flood, she’ll play an immigration officer fighting for the rights of an asylum seeker. Fun fact? The film also features her GoT co-star Iain Glen (aka Jorah Mormont). She’ll also star in the multi-generational action thriller Gunpowder Milkshake and the Las Vegas heist drama Crooks.
Nikolaj Coster-Waldau (Jaime Lannister)
Nikolaj Coster-Waldau has pretty much been going non-stop since GoT filming wrapped. The middle Lannister will next play a Copenhagen cop in the crime thriller Domino. He has also filmed two movies in his home country of Denmark — Suicide Tourist and Notat — and is currently filming The Silencing. In the latter action-crime thriller, Coster-Waldau plays a reformed hunter who gets mired in a deadly game of cat and mouse with a vicious killer.
Gwendoline Christie (Brienne of Tarth)
Brienne of Tarth may not have always been treated as well as she deserved, but Gwendoline Christie happily has plenty of good headed her way. First up? She’s headed to London to hit the stage in a production of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. She’ll then star in another London-centric project — a film adaptation of the Charles Dickens saga David Copperfield, directed by Veep creator Armando Iannucci and titled The Personal History of David Copperfield. And in 2020’s drama The Friend, she’ll star alongside Jason Segel, Dakota Johnson and Casey Affleck.
Isaac Hempstead Wright (Bran Stark)
Ol’ Bran the Broken ended up as the unlikely winner of the proverbial Iron Throne at GoT’s end, and it seems as though actor Isaac Hempstead Wright has similar good luck in store. He has already signed on to star in two upcoming films: Voyagers, a sci-fi thriller about a group of children sent on a space mission, and The Blue Mauritius, an adventure movie about a team of international thieves intent on hijacking the most valuable stamp in the world.
Nathalie Emmanuel (Missandei)
Hailed by many as the true breakout star of GoT, Nathalie Emmanuel (Missandei) certainly appears to be a star on the rise. She’ll soon be hopping to Hulu to star in Mindy Kaling’s TV adaptation of Four Weddings and a Funeral (she’ll play Maya), and she’s also voicing Deet in 10 episodes of the highly anticipated The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance. In the upcoming comedy Holly Slept Over, she’ll star alongside Josh Lawson and Britt Lower in screenwriter Josh Friedlander’s directorial debut.
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