'Good Wife' Spinoff Adds 'Game of Thrones' Alum Rose Leslie

CBS’ Good Wife spinoff is calling Jon Snow’s ex to the stand.

Rose Leslie, best known as Game of Thrones‘ late warrior Ygritte, is joining the forthcoming offshoot in a major, series-regular role, TVLine has learned. The actress will play Maia, Diane’s (Christine Baranski) goddaughter who joins her firm just after passing the bar, and is a key part of Diane’s plan for the future.

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The new series — debuting in February 2017 on CBS, before moving exclusively to the network’s streaming service CBS All Access — picks up one year after the events of the Good Wife finale. An enormous financial scam has destroyed the reputation of Leslie’s Maia, while simultaneously wiping out Diane’s savings. Forced out of Lockhart & Lee, Diane and Maia join Lucca Quinn (the returning Cush Jumbo) at one of Chicago’s pre-eminent law firms.

“We’re thrilled to have Rose on board,” enthused executive producers/showrunners Robert and Michelle King in a statement. “We needed a young actress who could hold her own with Christine Baranski and Cush Jumbo, and Rose is perfect. She’s real, she’s strong, and she can play comedy. If we designed an actress from the ground up, we couldn’t have done better.”

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As TVLine reported last month, Sarah Steele has also joined the spinoff, reprising her role as Eli’s daughter Marissa Gold (who will work as the new firm’s investigator, following in the footsteps of Kalinda).

Prior to joining Game of Thrones, Leslie played Gwen Dawson in the first season of Downton Abbey.

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