Game of Thrones Star Emilia Clarke Joins Peacock Thriller Series Ponies

After years of playing Daenerys Targaryen on HBO’s hit Game of Thrones, Emilia Clarke has officially landed her latest television gig. On Monday, it was announced that Clarke will both star in and executive produce Ponies, a new live-action espionage thriller that was just given a straight-to-series order by Peacock. This marks the latest television role landed by Clarke, after it was announced earlier this year that she will portray Mallory in Prime Video’s adaptation of Image Comics’ Criminal series.

Ponies is co-created by Susanna Fogel (The Flight Attendant, The Spy Who Dumped Me) and David Iserson (Mr. Robot, New Girl). Fogel serves as executive producer, director, and co-writer on the series, while Iserson serves as co-writer and showrunner. 

What Is Ponies About?

Ponies is set in Moscow, 1977. Two “PONIES” (“persons of no interest” in intelligence speak) work anonymously as secretaries in the American Embassy. That is until their husbands are killed under mysterious circumstances in the USSR, and the pair become CIA operatives. Bea (Emilia Clarke) is an over-educated, Russian-speaking child of Soviet immigrants. Her cohort, Twila, is a small-town girl who is as abrasive as she is fearless. Together, they work to uncover a vast Cold War conspiracy and solve the mystery that made them widows in the first place. 

Executive producers on Ponies also include Jessica Rhoades (Black Mirror, Station Eleven, Dirty John), with Alison Mo Massey and Katherine Bridle serving as co-executive producers. 

Will Emilia Clarke Return to the MCU?

One of Clarke’s most recent television appearances was on Secret Invasion, the Marvel Studios series that premiered on Disney+ in the summer of 2023. Clarke’s character, the Skrull G’iah, ended the events of the series with a massive array of other superheroes’ powers, which has naturally begged the question of if and when we could see her in the franchise again. As Secret Invasion director Ali Selim argued at the time, there wouldn’t necessarily be a guarantee that G’iah would reemerge in the MCU, so his priority was resolving her individual story.

“For me, the Olivia Colman/Emilia Clarke, Sonya/G’iah moment at the end, I think it does set up something really potentially interesting,” Selim revealed to The Wrap. “But I think it’s also a lovely resolution to the story. And if they never show up in the MCU again, I feel fulfilled.”