Life after Game of Thrones – what the stars are up to next
The end is nigh for Game of Thrones, but that doesn't mean you have to wave goodbye to the stars of the show.
From Daenerys, Mother of Dragons, to Jaime Lannister, defenestrator of children, this lot aren't stopping anytime soon – and here's where you can find them next.
Kit Harington (Jon Snow)
Everything Kit Harington says suggests he is ready to step out of the limelight for a while, following his time on Thrones.
"Of course I want to be in a film that gets a run at the Oscars. I'd love that. But am I seeking the red carpet-ness, and everything that goes around it? No," he told GQ Middle East earlier this year.
"'Cause I've done that. I've been to the SAG awards nine years in a row with Thrones. What's more to experience about it?"
So, what exactly has he got planned?
"Could be anything next," he continued. "The way I feel at the moment is that I've been given a great liberation that most actors don't get. Most actors, whatever they tell you, are seeking fame. Seeking notoriety. Because that's the goal, isn't it? And I've had that the last nine years. And I think there would be something a bit wrong with me if I was still seeking it."
But fear not, this definitely isn't the last we've seen of Harington.
"Look, I'm an actor, I've got an ego. To want to get up on stage and have people look at you, you've got an ego. So there's a part of me that likes it, walking in somewhere and being recognised, and I'd be lying if I said otherwise."
In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, the actor did say that people should expect his new work to have a totally different feel to that of Thrones.
"I'd like to step away and enjoy the obscurity, cut my hair, make myself less recognisable as the character, and go do and some other things with a completely new look and tone," he said.
"I can't go into my next role looking the same. This role was brilliant, but I'll need to get rid of Jon Snow."
And that means you might be waiting a while to see him as another Jon Snow type figure.
"I'm not really driven by wanting to play heroes right now," he told Variety.
"I don't want to be Bruce Willis and be an action hero...The sort of ideal for an actor seems to be nowadays, 'Oh, I'll do this Marvel franchise, and I'll have this time after to do my fun stuff.' I've had that with Thrones and I wouldn't mind continuing that."
For the record, he has nothing listed as being in production at this time, even though he could have his pick of roles. Probably needs a holiday.
Emilia Clarke (Daenerys Targaryen)
Clarke is set to appear in two films following her time on Thrones.
The first is Above Suspicion, a thriller based on author Joe Sharkey's book of the same name. The real-life story covers the first ever conviction for the murder of an FBI agent.
The plot is set in a mining town in Kentucky and follows Clarke as Susan Smith, a woman who is having an affair with FBI agent Mark Putnam (Outlander's Jake Huston), as well as acting as his informant.
She will also appear in Last Christmas, a romantic comedy set in London directed by Paul Feig (Bridesmaids, A Simple Favour) and co-written by Emma Thompson. Clarke will play a woman called Kate, alongside Crazy Rich Asians stars Henry Golding, who plays her love interest Tom, and Michelle Yeoh.
There's also a possibility that she will return to the Star Wars franchise as Qi'ra, although Clarke did tell The Hollywood Reporter that even though she is contracted for more, it's probably "an insurance thing".
Lena Headey (Cersei Lannister)
Lena Headey has a handful of new projects lined up after saying goodbye to the formidable Cersei Lannister.
In The Flood, which is currently in post-production, Headey plays Wendy, a British immigration officer who has the fate of an asylum seeker in her hands.
Speaking to Variety about the film, she said, "We were keen to show the complexity and the humanity on all sides of the story – the refugees, the immigration officers who decide their fate, the people smugglers and even the lorry drivers who transport them. Our hope was that the film is as a bare and honest reflection of what's happening every day in the UK, Europe and around the world."
She is also set to appear in Crooks and Gunpowder Milkshake, which are in are in pre-production.
In the former, Heady appears alongside Mark Kassen and Juno Temple. The film is set in Las Vegas in 1968, and Kassen and Temple play Johnny and Faye, two hustlers who rob a casino.
There isn't much information out there about Gunpowder Milkshake at the moment, other than the fact that it's an action thriller about killers for hire with a multi-generational ensemble cast.
Maisie Williams (Arya Stark)
Maisie Williams is set to appear in X-Men: The New Mutants later this year as Rahne Sinclair aka Wolfsbane, who has the ability to transform herself into a wolf. Other stars include Stranger Things' Charlie Heaton and Anya-Josephine Taylor-Joy (Split, Glass).
Teen drama Then Came You, another of Williams' most recent projects, aired earlier this year. In it she plays Skye, a teen with a terminal illness who enlists the help of Calvin (Sex Education's Asa Butterfield), a neurotic hypochondriac, to help her complete her bucket list.
Williams is also set to star in The Owners, a thriller set in the 1990s based on a comic book designed by Herrmann and written by Yves H.
The narrative follows two friends who are encouraged by a sociopath to rob the elderly local doctor and his wife. Williams plays the girlfriend of one of the perpetrators, and she is strongly against the plan, which results in a deadly game of cat and mouse.
Filming is expected to start shortly in Kent.
Peter Dinklage (Tyrion Lannister)
Peter Dinklage hasn't been short of offers, which is no surprise.
He is voicing the Mighty Eagle again in The Angry Birds Movie 2, which hits cinemas in August later this year. And he is voicing Phil Betterman in The Croods 2, a member of the rival family who challenge the Croods. The film is set for release in 2020.
Dinklage is also starring in an adaptation of author Joe Lansdale's crime thriller, The Thicket. He plays the role of an ingenious bounty hunter called Shorty, enlisted by a young man called Jack to help find his sister, who has been kidnapped by Cut Throat Bill and his gang.
And if that isn't quite enough, he is also appearing in The Dwarf. The film is adapted from a book of the same name in which Alexander Skarsgård plays a prince and Dinklage plays his Machiavellian right-hand man.
Sophie Turner (Sansa Stark)
As if one big franchise weren't enough for Sophie Turner, she went and threw herself into the X-Men franchise as Jean Grey in Dark Phoenix, which hits cinemas this June.
Turner is also set to appear in Broken Soldier, a film about a war veteran with PTSD who makes friends with a teenage girl called Penelope, played by Turner.
She's also working on a film called Girl Who Fell From the Sky, a thriller in which Turner plays Juliane Koepcke, a woman who was the sole survivor of a plane crash back in 1971. The airliner was struck by lightning and Koepcke fell two miles but somehow managed to cheat death.
Turner will also appear in revenge thriller Heavy. The story follows Turner and her high-end drug dealer boyfriend, played by Daniel Zovatto, and for the most part their life is fairly steady, if not entirely conventional. But then a childhood friend appears out of the blue asking for help with a dodgy deal, setting off a chain of chaotic events.
Nikolaj Coster-Waldau (Jaime Lannister)
Nikolaj Coster-Waldau has teamed up with fellow GOT star Carice van Houten for Domino, a thriller which is set to hit screens this May. Coster-Waldau and van Houten play Copenhagen-based police officers who are out for justice, after their partner was killed by an ISIS member while on the job.
"Who knew that Jamie Lannister and Melisandre would meet outside Westeros?" said van Houten.
He will also appear in mystery drama Suicide Tourist as Max, an insurance investigator who is looking into the disappearance of a man called Arthur. His findings take him to a covert facility which offers people assisted-suicide fantasies, and he then begins to wrestle with his own existential crisis.
At the end of 2019, he will also appear in Notat, a film based on the events surrounding the 2015 Copenhagen shootings.
Isaac Hempstead-Wright (Bran Stark)
"I do want to keep acting," Isaac Hempstead-Wright told The Telegraph when asked about his future plans. "I really enjoy it, and I'm really excited to be able to move on to some other things because as fabulous as Game of Thrones has been, I haven't been doing much else on the side in between going to school and filming that for six months a year."
But as well as trying out at a handful of auditions, one of which involved getting down to the final two for the lead on a TV series, his first port of call is to finish his time at university – he was studying maths and music at Birmingham University, and is now going on to study neuroscience.
He added: "I just want the chance to go and do something of my own accord. I've been on this big machine for so long and yet this is still the start of my life. I fell into it when I was so young, I didn't know what I was doing or where I was going."
His first big project after Thrones is action thriller The Blue Mauritius, in which five international thieves converge in Cape Town to steal the most valuable stamp in the world.
Daredevil's Élodie Yung (Elektra) also features.
Gwendoline Christie (Brienne of Tarth)
Gwendoline Christie wants people to know that she is well and truly open for business now that her time on GOT has officially wrapped.
Speaking on Good Morning America, she said, "Now it's the last season, I don't need to worry about being employed for another year with a company.
"I am open to offers. I love cash. Cash is king."
Christie has been cast in a film called The Friend alongside Casey Affleck, Dakota Johnson and Jason Segel. The film is about real-life couple Matthew and Nicole Teague, played by Affleck and Johnson, who discover that Nicole has just six months to live, and require the support of their best friend, played by Segel, to help them cope.
Christie will also appear in The Personal History of David Copperfield, a film written and directed by Armando Iannucci and based on Charles Dickens' novel, which will be released later this year.
Alfie Allen (Theon Greyjoy)
Alfie Allen is set to appear in Taika Waititi's dark comedy drama Jojo Rabbit later this year.
He will star alongside a raft of big names including Waititi himself, Scarlett Johansson, Sam Rockwell, Rebel Wilson and Stephen Merchant.
The story follows Roman Griffin Davis as Jojo "Rabbit" Betzler, a young boy living during World War II who uses an imaginary friend as a way to cope and escape the everyday. However, his imaginary friend just happens to be a version of Adolf Hitler, played by Waititi.
Allen will also appear in comedy How to Build a Girl, based on the novel of the same name by Caitlin Moran. The story follows teenager Johanna Morrigan who reinvents herself as Dolly Wilde, moves London and gets a job as a music critic, all in the hope of raising enough cash to help her family back in Wolverhampton.
The cast includes Paddy Considine, Jameela Jamil, Emma Thompson and Chris O'Dowd, among others.
Carice van Houten (Melisandre)
During an interview with Country & Town House, Carice van Houten revealed what lies ahead for her following her time on Thrones: "I'm co-producing a series in Holland with my best friend who I started a company with. She directed me in her first film called Instinct, it's coming out this year. I'm very proud of it."
And she'll also be back in front of the camera, too: "You'll also see me in Temple, a series which will be out on Sky Atlantic this autumn – it's a darkly comic thriller with Mark Strong and Daniel Mays."
The series is an adaptation of the Norwegian drama series Valkyrien about an illegal clinic set up in an abandoned subterranean network of tunnels below the streets of London. It is open to anyone who is willing to pay for medical help outside the system.
She's also appearing in Domino with Coster-Waldau, and The Glass Room, an adaptation of Simon Mawer's novel, which tells the love story of two women.
Then there's Lost Girls and Love Hotels, a thriller about a Western woman called Margaret who lives in Tokyo. She spends her nights at the city's love hotels and bars in an attempt to suppress painful childhood memories about her schizophrenic brother. She falls in love with a Japanese gangster called Kazu and things soon take a dramatic turn.
She will also appear in Instinct as Nicoline, a psychologist working in an institution who begins an affair with a serial rapist.
Iain Glen (Jorah Mormont)
Iain Glen is also set to appear alongside Headey in The Flood as Philip, Wendy's boss.
And later this year, he will appear in What About Love, a film which follows two young lovers who teach their parents how to find love and joy once again.
Then there's sci-fi thriller Haven: Above Sky, which follows a female astronaut set in the near distant future. She is shipwrecked on the wasteland that is Earth and must decide what to do about the planet's last remaining people.
Liam Cunningham (Davos Seaworth)
Cunningham revealed his plans post Thrones during an interview with Independent.ie: "Continuing working, continuing to put shoes on my own children's feet. I've got a couple of bits and pieces planning. I've just come back from South Africa where I've been doing a drama [The Hot Zone] about the Ebola crisis with the lovely Julianna Margulies."
It's currently in post-production and is set to air later this year.
He will also appear in Way Down alongside The Good Doctor's Freddie Highmore, a heist movie involving a legendary lost treasure which is deposited in a bank that no one has ever managed to break into.
John Bradley (Samwell Tarly)
Bradley is shooting two films this year, one of which is Tale of the Wet Dog about a homeless man who becomes a media sensation after he saves a woman and her dog from the Hudson River.
Nathalie Emmanuel (Missandei)
Nathalie Emmanuel is set to appear in Hulu's Four Weddings and a Funeral, Mindy Kaling's miniseries based on Richard Curtis's film of the same name.
Emmanuel plays Maya, one of the four friends the narrative follows who reunite for a fabulous London wedding. But tragedy is quickly thrown into the mix and as a result, "a tumultuous year of romance and heartbreak".
Emmanuel will also appear in Netflix's The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance, which follows three Gelflings – Rian (Taron Egerton), Brea (Anya Taylor-Joy) and Deet (Emmanuel) – as they figure out the mystery behind the Skeksis' power, and begin a mission to save the world.
Rory McCann (The Hound)
Rory McCann is either keeping his cards close to his chest about any future projects, taking a well-earned holiday, or doing a Jack Gleeson (Joffrey) and walking away from acting altogether.
Either way, his diary is entirely open right now, as far as we can see.
Jerome Flynn (Bronn)
It's from one big franchise to another for Jerome Flynn, who is set to appear in John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum later this year.
Joe Dempsie (Gendry)
Fox's espionage drama Deep State is on its way back in May and Joe Dempsie is returning as Harry.
His team is captured by soldiers in the middle of their mission in sub-Saharan Africa.
Gemma Whelan (Yara Greyjoy)
Gemma Whelan is set to appear in Emma, an adaption of the Jane Austen novel of the same name. The cast includes Anya Taylor-Joy as Emma, Johnny Flynn, Bill Nighy and Miranda Hart, among others.
She will also appear in Gentleman Jack with Suranne Jones, who plays real-life Anne Lister, a woman who is considered to be the "first modern lesbian", enjoying a number of female lovers who she wrote about in her many diaries.
Whelan plays her sister, Marian.
Hannah Murray (Gilly)
Just as Rory McCann's future plans are a mystery, so are Hannah Murray's.
Want up-to-the-minute entertainment news and features? Just hit 'Like' on our Digital Spy Facebook page and 'Follow' on our @digitalspy Instagram and Twitter account.
('You Might Also Like',)
