Kit Harington Says He Won’t ‘Pretend’ That ‘Eternals’ Was an ‘Interesting’ Role

Samantha Bergeson
·2 min read
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Kit Harington may have had a “Game of Thrones” reunion with Richard Madden in 2021 Marvel film “Eternals,” but the actor isn’t going to “pretend” like the MCU is high art.

Harington told GQ UK that playing Dane Whitman in the film, directed by Chloé Zhao, was something he just had to do, given that it was a mega-franchise with Marvel.

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“I’m not gonna pretend I took that [role] because it was different and interesting,” Harington said. “If Marvel calls, you’ve got to do it.”

The film received the worst reviews out of the Marvel installments at the time, leading Harington’s co-star Kumail Nanjiani to later admit he suffered from “trauma” from the critical backlash.

Harington, however, could still be back at Marvel. His character was teased as becoming Black Knight in an “Eternals” post-credits scene; that superhero character was believed to appear in the upcoming “Blade” film, which has already been stalled numerous times amid director and screenwriter switch-ups. The feature is still in development, however. But there’s no word on whether Harington will reprise his MCU role for “Blade.”

As for his other famous franchise, “Game of Thrones,” Harington has hung up his hat as Jon Snow. The actor told GQ UK that there was a “lot of baggage” playing the fan favorite hero in the HBO series.

“And I think that was part of the problem,” Harington said. “In some ways, you need to divorce completely from this previous thing, and we’re only a few years after it. The role will always be just such a significant factor of my life. It might very well be the biggest, most important piece of work I do. I met my wife on it. I have kids from it. Have some lifelong friends from it. I’m recognized in the street because of it. [But] it was also working against what I’m trying to do, which is separate myself from [the show]. By still being with it, it [would be] very hard to ask people to see you as something else.”

And contrary to initial reports that credited Harington for pitching his now-shelved Jon Snow spinoff, the star explained how HBO actually asked him to return to the world of “Game of Thrones” for another series. In fact, Harington first turned HBO down.

“In the end, I kind of backed out and said, ‘I think if we push this any further and keep developing it we could end up with something that’s not good. And that’s the last thing we all want,'” Harington said.

 

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