Game of Thrones Star Emilia Clarke Looks Back on First Season 10 Years Later

Can you believe this month marks ten whole years since Game of Thrones originally aired? In honor of this “iron anniversary,” many folks have been celebrating the occasion. Recently, Entertainment Weekly had a chat with Emilia Clarke (Daenerys Targaryen), who reflected on her time playing the Mother of Dragons. In fact, she talked about what it’s like to hit this major anniversary.

“I honestly still look back at it and go, ‘I’m so not at a point where I can retrospectively see this for what it is.’ I think I’ll be 90 when I can actually do that,” Clarke revealed. “The experience was so enormous, and so all-consuming, and defines me at that young moment in my life. You kind of look back at it like you would high school or college. When you’re young like that, you’re so in the moment.”

“I look back at the person who was there and go, ‘You really have no idea what’s coming. You have no idea what’s about to hit,’” Clarke continued. “And it was beautiful for that. We were all very much in the moment that we were in, and very unaware as to how it was going to be received, what people were going to think, who we were going to be at the end of it. I’m going to call us kids, because we were — we were just having fun, experiencing this crazy thing. And it was joyous for that. That first season was nonstop joy, and so much fun. I look back at it with complete love.”

While Clarke’s days in Westeros came to an end back in 2019, HBO is not done with George R.R. Martin‘s world. The first Game of Thrones spin-off on HBO’s roster is House of the Dragon, a series that will draw inspiration from Martin’s novella Fire & Blood, and follow the rise of the Targaryen family.

Paddy Considine, Matt Smith, Olivia Cooke, and Emma D’Arcy have all been named as part of the cast as well as Rhys Ifans, Steve Toussaint, Eve Best, and Sonoya Mizuno. It was previously reported that the series will have five main characters, including King Viserys Targaryen (Considine), Alicent Hightower (Cooke), Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen (D’Arcy), Prince Daemon Targaryen (Smith), and Lord Corlys Velaryon AKA the Sea Snake (Toussaint). Ifans will play Otto Hightower, the hand of the King, and Best has been cast as Princess Rhaenys Velaryon. Thet leaves Mizuno, who plays Mysaria, an ally to Prince Daemon Targaryen who “came to Westeros with nothing and has been sold more times than she can recall.”

Are you excited for House of the Dragon? Tell us in the comments!