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Celeb roundup: Maisie Williams to star in X-Men spin-off, and more

Dan Selcke
Dan Selcke

Winter is Coming

In today’s Hollywood, you’re nobody unless you’re in a superhero movie. Luckily, Maisie Williams (Arya Stark) is somebody. Hitfix reports that she’s been cast in Josh Boone’s upcoming New Mutants, which is set in the X-Men universe, but which stars, y’know, new mutants. Williams will play Wolfsbane, a Scottish werewolf.

Wolfsbane. Art by Ryan Sook.

It was only a matter of time before someone in the superhero business recruited Williams. With her physicality and charm, she should have no trouble standing out in that world. And with her onscreen big sister Sophie Turner (Sansa Stark) already set to play Jean Grey in the upcoming X-Men: Apocalypse, there’s actually a chance the two could share the big screen at some point as mutants in arms. Funny how art reflects…other art.

But Williams isn’t the only Game of Thrones cast member getting the superhero treatment. Entertainment Weekly reports that Jessica Henwick, best known as Nymeria Sand, will be starring as the female lead in Iron Fist, Marvel’s upcoming Netflix series about a superhero with really, really strong fists.

The hilarious thing about this story is that fellow Thrones cast member Finn Jones (Loras Tyrell) has already been cast as the male lead in Iron Fist. I swear, we’re going to look back in 10 years and realize that every major movie star got their start on Game of Thrones.

And now for something that doesn’t involve superheroes (try to hide your disappointment): IGN reports that old Game of Thrones castmates Lena Headey (Cersei Lannister) and Sean Bean (Ned Stark) will reunite for Kingsglaive, an animated movie set in the world of the upcoming Final Fantasy XV, from Square Enix.

Obviously, they’ll just be doing voices, but that’s still some big-budget stuff. Bean will voice King Regis, who must defend his kingdom from an evil empire bent on invading and stealing a super-important crystal he’s got somewhere. The only way he can salvage his kingdom is if he cedes away a bunch of land and marries his son to Lady Lunafreya, a former princess who’s being held captive by the evil empire. Headey will voice Lunafreya.

Aaron Paul, of Breaking Bad frame, will play a soldier named Nyx. This sounds like some high-quality fantasy nonsense right here. Bring it on.

Dan Selcke

Dan Selcke

Dan Selcke is a writer and editor living in Chicago, where he's been writing and podcasting for around 10 years about movies, TV and books, the nerdier the better. He's been published in The A.V. Club and in Metro, in the real-life newspaper with ink and everything. He used to be a lawyer but it didn't work out, although he still likes to argue. When not reading, watching TV or playing videogames, he prefers to be sedentary.