Kit Harington Can’t Watch ‘House of the Dragon’ After Spending ‘Too Long’ on ‘Game of Thrones,’ Says a Prequel Is ‘More Natural’ Than His Axed Jon Snow Sequel
Kit Harington played Jon Snow on HBO’s “Game of Thrones” for eight seasons between 2011 and 2019, and that’s all the time in Westeros he can apparently handle for now. The actor recently told the Associated Press that he can’t get himself to watch the “Thrones” prequel series “House of the Dragon,” which just wrapped its second season. The series is already renewed for Season 3, and the plan is for there to also be a fourth and final season.
“I just can’t watch it,” Harington said of watching “House of the Dragon” after his own “Thrones” tenure. “I think for me it’s just I’ve spent too long there. And I wish them all the best. I hear it’s wonderful and going really well. But I don’t think I’ll ever watch that show, and I don’t think I’ll watch ‘Game of Thrones’ again for a few years.”
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Harington isn’t the only original “Thrones” cast member who is choosing not to watch “House of the Dragon.” Emilia Clarke, who played Daenerys Targaryen, told Variety last year that she “just can’t do it.”
“It’s so weird, it’s so weird, it’s so strange,” she said. “It’s kind of like someone saying, ‘Do you want to go to this school reunion that’s not your year? You want to go back to that school reunion?’ That’s kind of how it feels. I’m avoiding it.”
Harington was planning to return Westeros for a sequel series centered on Jon Snow, but he confirmed earlier this year that the project has been shelved.
“Currently, it’s off the table, because we all couldn’t find the right story to tell that we were all excited about enough,” Harington told ScreenRant about the spinoff. “So, we decided to lay down tools with it for the time being. There may be a time in the future where we return to it, but at the moment, no. It’s firmly on the shelf.”
“Game of Thrones” concluded with Jon Snow’s exile from Westeros as he rides into the Haunted Forest with his direwolf Ghost and the Wildlings to begin a new life. Many fans assumed the spinoff series would’ve picked up with Snow’s adventures with the Wildlings.
In a recent interview with Collider, Harington said that a prequel series like “House of the Dragon” is just a more natural extension of the “Thrones” franchise than any kind of sequel series.
“I think a prequel is a natural thing to do. They did it with ‘Better Call Saul’ and with ‘House of the Dragon.’ You run into a lot of issues with a sequel,” Harington said. “A lot of the cast are done with it by then. So, who are you bringing back? Are you bringing back the same people? So, no, I’m not surprised that a prequel is something that is easier to do. It’s not easier to do, but a more natural place to go.”
Harington next returns to HBO for the new season of “Industry.”
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