Where Are They Now: Game Of Thrones Actors Who Played Dead Characters

For an actor, getting cast on Game of Thrones is a double-edged sword. On the one hand, it’ll gain you worldwide recognition. On the other hand, your character will likely be killed off within a couple of seasons and you’ll be back to square one in search of more acting work.

Of course, if you made enough of an impact on the show and warmed the hearts of its millions of fans, that won’t be a problem. So, as the show heads into its hugely anticipated eighth and final season, we’re asking Where Are They Now: Game Of Thrones Actors Who Played Dead Characters.

Richard Madden (Robb Stark)

Ever since his character Robb Stark went out in the most epic way in the infamous “Red Wedding” episode, Richard Madden has been keeping pretty busy. He starred in Disney’s Cinderella in 2015, the live-action remake that was so successful it convinced the studio to remake every single one of its movies in live-action.

Last year, he also played a DJ in the raunchy, female-led Netflix comedy Ibiza alongside Gillian Jacobs and Vanessa Bayer. This summer, he’ll be seen playing Elton John’s manager John Reid in the biopic Rocketman. Plus, he hasn’t left TV behind – he also starred in the mega-popular action drama series Bodyguard.

Pedro Pascal (The Red Viper)

Pedro Pascal is about to hit the big leagues. Sure, his role as the Red Viper in Game of Thrones put him in front of a global audience. But over the next couple of years, his career will skyrocket into the next level.

He’s landed a pivotal role in Wonder Woman 1984 and he’s been cast in the lead role of The Mandalorian, the new Star Wars series that’s being developed for Disney’s exclusive streaming service Disney+. It’s about time – Pascal has been acting since 1996, so it’s only taken him 23 years to become a major star.

Jack Gleeson (Joffrey Baratheon)

Following a small appearance in Batman Begins, Jack Gleeson got his big break as an actor with the role of Joffrey Baratheon in Game of Thrones. His performance was inspired by Joaquin Phoenix’s turn in Gladiator. While the character was universally hated, it would be unfair of the show’s fans to hold any animosity towards the actor, because he was simply playing a hateable character as hateable – and succeeded at it brilliantly.

Gleeson actually retired from acting when Joffrey was killed off, so his acting career was over pretty much as soon as it began. He founded the Collapsing Horse Theater Company, and has since been putting on puppet shows (seriously).

Charles Dance (Tywin Lannister)

Charles Dance has been around for years and he was known by film buffs long before he was cast in Game of Thrones. His most recent film appearance was alongside Rowan Atkinson in the spy spoof Johnny English Strikes Again, and he was also seen in the all-female Ghostbusters reboot in 2016.

Dance has also got a couple of high-profile upcoming projects on his schedule, including the prequel Kingsman: The Great Game, which will chronicle the formation of the secret spy agency at the beginning of the 20th century, and the monster-sized sequel Godzilla: King of the Monsters starring Millie Bobby Brown.

Natalie Dormer (Margaery Tyrell)

This year, we’ll see Natalie Dormer in the movie The Professor and the Madman with Mel Gibson and Sean Penn. It’s the story of the guy who compiled the Oxford English Dictionary from a mental asylum.

She also has a role in the main cast of Showtime’s new Penny Dreadful spin-off, City of Angels, which is set in Los Angeles in the 1930s. The series will blend Mexican folklore with the Golden Age of Hollywood, the rise of the Third Reich, and radio evangelism. Suffice to say, she’s been choosing projects very wisely.

Rose Leslie (Ygritte)

Rose Leslie as Ygritte in Game of Thrones

Just as her character Ygritte fell in love with Jon Snow, Rose Leslie was falling in love with Kit Harington on the set of Game of Thrones. They started dating in 2012 (the year she joined the series) and got married in 2018. After her character was killed off, Leslie took a role in another action-packed work of high fantasy: the Vin Diesel movie The Last Witch Hunter.

While that movie was a box office bomb, and nothing compared to the success of Game of Thrones, Leslie has been given a second chance with a starring role alongside Christine Baranski in CBS All Access’ The Good Fight.

Iwan Rheon (Ramsay Bolton)

Iwan Rheon has been doing very well for himself in the years since Ramsay Bolton was killed in the most satisfying and epic way possible in the “Battle of the Bastards” episode, but to be fair, he’d been very successful beforehand, too. He starred in the teen superhero drama Misfits on British TV.

Since he left the show, he’s had success with both TV – taking a leading role as Maximus in the Marvel series Inhumans – and movies – playing rock icon Mick Mars in Netflix’s upcoming Motley Crue biopic The Dirt. It’s fair to say that leaving Game of Thrones hasn’t hurt his career.

Sean Bean (Ned Stark)

Ned Stark lifting his head at his execution in Game of Thrones

Poor Sean Bean. Even when he’s the lead of an HBO series, his character doesn’t make it to the end – or even the end of the first season. Aside from becoming a meme due to his tendency to play characters who are horrifically killed, Bean has been starring in less successful fantasy series like Legends and The Frankenstein Chronicles.

He has also played small roles in a number of Hollywood movies, ranging from Mirror Mirror to The Martian. His upcoming projects for the coming year include the sci-fi drama series Curfew and the World War II miniseries World on Fire.

Khal Drogo (Jason Momoa)

Out of every fallen Game of Thrones actor, Jason Momoa is easily the one who’s gone on to have the best career. He’s been playing Aquaman in the DC Extended Universe since 2016 and recently got his first solo movie, which was such a huge hit that it surpassed The Dark Knight Rises as DC Films’ highest grossing movie of all time.

He’s certainly doing better now than he was before his GoT role. Back then, he was only known for playing Conan the Barbarian in that 2011 reboot that was panned by critics and bombed at the box office.