In the eyes of many Game of Thrones fans, the series' younger cast members will always be their Season 1 ages forever. For many audience members who have tuned into the show since 2011, it seems strange to see the likes of Sophie Turner, who played Sansa Stark, and Maisie Williams, better known as Arya Stark, all grown up. Those fans are in for quite a rude awakening, as one key cast member, who got his start starring in the series' pilot, "Winter is Coming," when he was very young, just reached a major milestone in life.
Isaac Hempstead-Wright, who played Bran Stark in Game of Thrones seasons 1-4 and 6-8, recently got married. The actor, now 26, posted pictures of his beautiful wedding to a woman he simply refers to as "M" on Instagram. Notably, several of Wright's Game of Thrones co-stars, including Turner, Nathalie Emmanuel (Missandei), Lena Headey (Cersei Lannister), John Bradley (Samwell Tarly), Gwendoline Christie (Brienne of Tarth), Ben Crompton (Eddison "Edd" Tollett), Dean-Charles Chapman (Tommen Baratheon), and Lino Facioli (Robin Arryn) expressed their congratulations to the happy couple in the comments section.
In his Instagram post, Wright wrote, "The best person I have ever met, the best day of my life, the best friends and family we could ever ask for. What a day, what a life - I love you M."
Bran Stark's incredible journey on Game of Thrones
Hempstead-Wright's Bran quickly endears himself to audience members as a cute, adventerous little boy, climbing the walls of Winterfell. However, Bran's sense of adventure gets him into trouble, leading to one of Game of Thrones' earliest shocking sequences. When Bran climbs up to the top of a remote tower, he discovers twins Jaime and Cersei Lannister having sex with each other. In order to keep their secret, Jaime pushes Bran from the tower in an attempt to kill him.
However, Bran survives the fall, though he loses the use of his legs, shattering his hopes of one day becoming a great knight. However, this forces Bran to develop warging abilities; special powers that allow him to possess the minds of animals, and even occasionally humans. After Theon Greyjoy takes over Winterfell, Bran, along with his brother Rickon, fakes his death and flees his home, eventually teaming up with siblings Meera and Jojen Reed, and his simple-minded stable boy Hodor, in order to seek the mysterious Three-Eyed Raven.
When Bran and company reach the Three-Eyed Raven's cave, he learns how to see into the past, working to improve his greenseer powers. However, Bran's training is cut short when the undead army attacks, resulting in the deaths of the Three Eyed-Raven, Bran's direwolf Summer, and Hodor. He is still able to use his abilities to see into the past, learning the truth about his half brother Jon Snow's parentage. Jon is, in actuality, the son of Rhaegar Targaryen and Lyanna Stark, making him the rightful heir to the Iron Throne.
During the Battle of Winterfell, Bran is nearly killed by the Night King, who seeks to eliminate him in order to erase the history of the living. However, Bran's sister Arya kills the Night King, thus destroying the threat of the White Walkers, before he can lay a finger on Bran. This, in part, leads to Tyrion Lannister nominating Bran to become King of Westeros after the deaths of Cersei and Daenerys Targaryen, and Bran accepts his new crown, winning the titular game of thrones without even playing.
Hempstead-Wright's marriage illustrates just how long it's been since the first episode of Game of Thrones aired. Bran is ten-years-old, noticeably older than his counterpart from A Song of Ice and Fire, George R.R. Martin's epic series of fantasy novels off of which Game of Thrones is based, in the first season of the show, and now, his actor, a grown man, is celebrating a huge milestone. Many fans still think of Bran as that ten-year-old who fell from a tower, so it can be jarring to see how much time has passed since the iconic first episode aired based on seeing the young cast members reach major life landmarks.
Since first appearing in Game of Thrones, Hempstead-Wright has acted in several other films and TV shows, most notably providing the voice for the leading role of Eggs in the Oscar nominated animated film The Boxtrolls, which released in 2014.
On behalf of the Winter is Coming team, congratulations to Isaac Hempstead-Wright and M on a wonderful wedding.
For more from George R.R. Martin's World of Westeros, make sure to catch the next Game of Thrones prequel, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, which is set to air its first episode on January 18, 2026, on HBO Max.