5 characters Henry Cavill could play in the Game of Thrones universe

Henry Cavill is a busy man. He’s Superman on the big screen. He’s Geralt of Rivia on the small screen. He’s in Mission: Impossible movies. He’s Sherlock Holmes. He’s building PCs. He doesn’t have time to take on more work…does he?

Well, at least some of his time just freed up. The other week, Cavill announced that after the forthcoming third season, he will no longer be playing the role of Geralt of Rivia in Netflix’s The Witcher. Why he’s walking out on a role he fought hard to get is up for debate, but the point is he’ll soon have more time.

And what might he do with it? Plenty of people online have looked at him on The Witcher — a medieval fantasy show where he wears a long white wig — and wondered if he’d be a good fit for HBO’s own lavish fantasy drama House of the Dragon, or at least something set in the expanding Game of Thrones universe.

Will such a thing come to pass? We have no idea, but if Cavill and HBO are interested, there are some roles that he could easily fill. Roles like…

"After hearing that HOTD could potentially become an anthology and go forward or backward from the dance, I started working on this: Henry Cavill as Aegon the Conqueror from HouseOfTheDragon"

Henry Cavill as…Aegon the Conqueror

This is the character Cavill has been most often called upon to play online. Aegon the Conqueror has been mentioned multiple times on Game of Thrones and especially House of the Dragon. Over 100 years before the events of the prequel show, Aegon and his sister-wives Visenya and Rhaenys (but not that Rhaenys) left their home on Dragonstone to take over Westeros. At the end of their war, Aegon became the first Targaryen king to sit on the Iron Throne, which he built out of the swords of his defeated enemies.

Now, House of the Dragon is telling the story of the Dance of the Dragons, a brutal civil war that occurred long after Aegon the Conqueror was dead. But it’s possible we could get his story after the show is done telling us about the Dance; showrunner Ryan Condal is open to turning the show into a Targaryen anthology series. Or we could get a whole new show all about Aegon and his sisters. There are multiple ways to go.

As for Aegon, it does sound like he’d be a good fit for Cavill. Aegon the Conqueror is an intimidating, forceful presence; he rolled over Seven Kingdoms, for heaven’s sake (well, six; Dorne gave him a lot of trouble, which is something the show could explore). Cavill has the presence and charisma to pull off a role like this.

The show could work in other layers, too. In House of the Dragon, we hear about how Aegon was driven to conquer Westeros because of a vision he had of a great darkness that would swallow the world whole unless the kingdoms were united under one leader. What does that kind of burden do to a leader? This show could get into it, and Cavill is a talented enough actor to handle anything the script threw at him.