Gwendoline Christie nabs new YA franchise, Emilia Clarke does the West End, and more

(Photo by David M. Benett/Dave Benett/Getty Images for LOVE Magazine)

As usual, the Game of Thrones cast members are feverishly busy furthering their careers when not working on the new season. Let’s check in with a few of them.

First up, Gwendoline Christie (Brienne of Tarth) has signed up for a new young adult movie franchise: the Darkest Minds books by Alexandra Bracken are about a post-apocalyptic America where a disease has wiped out the great majority of the country’s teenagers. Naturally, the few who remain develop superpowers. Per The Hollywood Reporter, Christie will play “a bounty hunter of fugitive teens who takes immense pleasure in her vicious job.”

This makes a nice pairing with Christie’s role as the evil Captain Phasma in the new Star Wars movies — apparently, you can only play good guys like Brienne for so long before you want to switch teams.

Moving up the ladder, Emilia Clarke (Daenerys) is expanding beyond movies and TV into the theater. The Daily Mail reports that she’ll play the female lead in Five Times in One Night, a new play that explores how five couples (starting with Adam and Eve and going all the way into the future) relate to each other. Clarke will play the female half of all five couples, so this should be a fun way to show off her range. “Jesus Christ! She’s good,” said Fiery Angel theater company partner Marilyn Eardley after seeing Clarke read of the role(s). Well, yeah.

Five Times in One Night will debut in the West End in 2018, after Disney has released the upcoming Han Solo movie, in which Clarke also stars.

Lower-profile cast members are getting gigs, too. For example, the Mirror reports that Faye Marsay (Arya’s nemesis the Waif) will play a rising young police officer in Bancroft, ITV’s new “hard-hitting crime drama.” And The Sunday Morning Herald has it that Aisling Franciosi, who made a brief but memorable appearance as Lyanna Stark in season 6, will play the lead in The Nightingale, from The Babadook director Jennifer Kent.

"She plays a 21-year-old Irish convict [in Australia] who witnesses the brutal murder of her family by her lieutenant master and his cronies. Unable to get justice, she takes an Aboriginal tracker with her through the wilderness to seek revenge."

Everybody’s getting work.

Not a new job but interesting: Carice van Houten (Melisandre) posted a picture of a package she received, possibly from someone at HBO — the envelope was marked “Game of Thrones,” anyway.

Actually, it was marked “Games of Thorne.” And her name was spelled “Caprice Van Houten.” If this is from HBO, they should probably spell-check more.

In celebrities who aren’t Game of Thrones cast members, System of a Down singer Serj Tankian showed up at a performance of the Game of Thrones Live Concert Experience at the Forum in Inglewood, California to sing “The Rains of Castamere.” Belt it!

Finally, in honor of Red Nose Day, Comic Relief has posted a full, 21-minute Doctor Who special first produced in 1999. It stars several Game of Thrones cast members, including Richard E. Grant (Izembaro), Jonathan Pryce (the High Sparrow) and Jim Broadbent (a new character in season 7). Enjoy: