Jason Mamoa, Kit Harington: The Stars Created By 'Game Of Thrones'
Game of Thrones is, without a doubt, the biggest show on television. It’s become known as the show where British actors go to die... quite literally - most stars of the show are killed off after just a few appearances! In the few years that it’s been running it’s been packed with some of the biggest names from the business, Sean Bean, Charles Dance... Jerome from Robson and Jerome (to name just a few).
The show has also kickstarted a few budding careers and catapulted some actors into the limelight. For example, Hawaiian-born Jason Mamoa who played Khal Drogo in the first season of the show has just been cast as Aquaman in the upcoming Justice League films. Despite working on Stargate: Atlantis and appearing as Conan in 2011 reboot of Conan the Barbarian, starring with Ben Affleck and Henry Cavill in Batman v Superman will definitely be a step in the right direction for Mamoa’s career.
Kit Harington is a young star who can thank being cast in Game of Thrones for his whole current career. Harington had no major roles prior to playing Jon Snow in the show but has since gone on to appear in big budget movie Pompeii, which although poorly received said a lot about Harington’s bright future, as he was cast in the lead. Harington hasn’t let the poor Pompeii reviews slow him down and has just completed filming Seventh Son, which he stars in alongside Julianne Moore and Jeff Bridges and is currently filming Testament of Youth with Emily Waton and Hayley Atwell. In the three years since Game of Thrones began Harington’s certainly taken off!
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Emilia Clarke AKA Daenerys Targaryen was relatively unknown before she was cast as one of the leads in HBO’s hit show. In 2009 she had a small role in UK TV series Doctors and played Savannah in Triassic Attack, a made for TV movie in 2010. Since being cast in Game of Thrones Clarke has starred in Dom Hemingway with Jude Law and is currently filming Terminator: Genesis with Arnie. That’s quite the career turnaround in a very short space of time!
Sophie Turner who plays Sansa Stark was fresh to acting when she joined the Game of Thrones cast and now has a budding career on the horizon. Her forthcoming film Alone, which she stars in with Ray Liotta, is currently in post-production as is Barely Lethal, also starring Jessica Alba and scheduled for release some time this year.
Game of Thrones has certainly bred a few stars and there's still a long way to go so here's hoping it continues to churn out the talent of tomorrow.
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