Game of Thrones alum Maisie Williams is addressing whether she’d reprise her role as Arya Stark.
In a Sunday, September 6, interview with the U.K.’s Guardian newspaper, Williams, 29, said she was aware of reports that HBO is developing a project centered around her character.
“I saw that, too! I was like, ‘Huh?’” she noted.
However, as for whether the project would entice her to revisit Arya, Williams said, “I don’t know, really. She would have to be developed in some way because I feel like I’ve changed so much, and I feel like what people loved about Arya is that she was always a child doing things that were quite grownup.”
Williams was 12 when she was cast as Arya in Game of Thrones and spent many of her formative years on the set of the hit fantasy drama.
In the interview, she admitted that the first half of her 20s was difficult as she left Arya behind.
“The first half of my 20s was just hell, but I think maybe it is for a lot of people,” she said. “I think that has more to do with the fact that Game of Thrones was ending, and I didn’t know what I was going to do next, and I just needed a break, to be honest with you. And then it also has to do with delayed teenage awkward years and figuring a lot of things out that I felt like maybe I couldn’t do much earlier than that. And also COVID, and also an industry strike.”
Since Game of Thrones ended in 2019, HBO has launched two spinoff shows, House of the Dragon and A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, while Warner Bros. is developing a movie spinoff tentatively titled Game of Thrones: Aegon’s Conquest.
Williams’ former onscreen brother, Kit Harington, was also once in talks to reprise his role as Jon Snow in a Game of Thrones sequel, but the show never came to fruition.
“It’s open knowledge that we tried to make a Jon Snow show for a little while and just couldn’t,” Harington said at Motor City Comic Con in May, per ScreenRant.
“My main thing is not wanting to go there and sort of do an injustice by the character. As I’ve just said, I think he ended well. I think that he went where he was meant to. So, if you pick him up again, it needs to be for the right reasons,” the actor explained.
He added, “But I did feel there was something left to say, and I did think the idea of exploring something kind of entirely around him, or a lot around him, would be interesting. Because remember in Game of Thrones, you’re part of a huge ensemble, and it would be quite interesting to look at a character dive more focused on [him]. And that’s why I was intrigued, but we couldn’t find the right thing, and so we put it down for the moment.”
