Emilia Clarke and Joe Naufahu talk Dany’s Return to the Dothraki

At the end of Season 5, we saw Daenerys surrounded by Dothraki warriors, and in the trailers for Season 6, we see that she’s their prisoner. But who are these new warriors? Do we know any of them from the books? With half a dozen actors cast in various Dothraki roles for the season, we know that at least some of them will rise to prominence, but which ones? And who do they play?

Now, one of those actors is speaking out. Joe Naufahu, who plays the most important Dothraki in Dany’s life, sat down with The Hollywood Reporter alongside Emilia Clarke to discuss his character and Dany’s return to Khal Drogo’s people.

His character is named Khal Moro, a name book-readers may recognize. He’s a bit character in the very first novel, at the “presentation” of Dany to Khal Drogo, and then appears again in A Dance with Dragons. According to Naufahu, it sounds like we’ll get to know him pretty well in Season 6.

He’s Dothraki, so he’s a bit of a brute. But he’s also quite loyal. He follows traditions very strictly. He’s loyal to the living, and he’s loyal to the dead as well. He’s not as much of a chauvinist as some of the other Dothraki.

Moro is as big of a badass as Khal Drogo, from the sounds of it. Per Naufahu, “My hair was down to my butt, and that’s because [Moro] has never been beat.” As a former rugby player turning professional trainer and actor, doing the stunts and riding and so forth was easy for him. The hard part was learning the fantasy language.

There’s no rules. There were no language rules you can fall back on while filming. You have to remember the sounds. Not only do you have to learn your own [lines], you have to learn the other people’s as well. Otherwise, you’re just standing there waiting for a reaction. That was the toughest part. I can ride horses; that’s all good. I can grow a beard. They can put tattoos on me. In terms of prep, it was just the language.

Clarke agrees the language is always the hardest part. Not having had to speak Dothraki for a couple of seasons meant that she was out of practice. “It had been a second. I had to practice to get all of that back again.”

And although she won’t give anything away about what will go down with the Dothraki, other than the fact that she never took it for granted that her character would be safe, she also projects confidence. “I’m a Khaleesi,” she says. “They can try to step up to this, but they will fail.”