Nathalie Emmanuel talks Game of Thrones season 7, Missandei’s romance with Grey Worm, and more

Nathalie Emmanuel has been doing a lot of press lately for The Fate of the Furious, which comes out this weekend. That also means plenty of opportunities for journalists to ask her questions about Game of Thrones, where she’s played Daenerys’ councilor Missandei for the past four seasons. In Style grilled her particularly hard, and while Emmanuel is too experienced to reveal any big secrets about season 7, she did offer a quality tease:

"I’m excited about this season because a lot of the momentum we’ve been building with this winter that is coming, or has been coming for a long time, kicks into gear now. And there’s a continuation of characters who haven’t previously interacted coming together, which is always exciting to watch."

(These two are pictured together because they’re in The Fate of the Furious together, not because they filmed scenes on GoT, but hey, who knows?)

But even though new characters are meeting up, old friendships will endure, like the one between Missandei and Daenerys. “[Missandei has] been a slave her whole live and is incredibly intelligent and uses that for the greater good,” Emmanuel said. “She and Daenerys have that in common; Daenerys was sold in a sense for the advancement of men, so they have that solidarity in having both been used but emerging stronger.”

And of course, over the past few seasons, Missandei has been developing an unlikely romance with Grey Worm, the captain of Daenerys’ Unsullied soldiers. As Grey Worm is a eunuch, any relationship they have will face problems, but Emmanuel sees it as rooted in something deeper than physical compatibility.

"They’re such a great couple because there’s a purity about their connection. It’s been born of a place of pain and confusion and oppression, so they understand one another. It’s very human, and yet very rare. In that world of people being butchered and battered and manipulated, there’s this very pure, very sweet thing. It’s special."

We’ll see if those crazy kids can make it when Game of Thrones season 7 debuts on July 16.