Sophie Turner became a household name for her incredible performance as Sansa Stark in all eight seasons of Game of Thrones. The English actress, now 28, has gone on to scoop up other impressive roles, though nothing has been as groundbreaking as the HBO hit. As she promotes her latest project, playing real-life jewel thief Joan Hannington in ITV's Joan, Turner has discussed what drew her to the role, navigating motherhood (comments she had to, unfortunately, clarify on Instagram), and, of course, her feelings on Thrones years later.
Game of Thrones came to an end five years ago, and while the series finale was not a crowd-pleaser, the show has cemented itself as one of the best of all time and remains a cultural powerhouse. We're not sure if Turner has checked out the prequel series House of the Dragon — though her ex-husband Joe Jonas has — but we know that the actress has not fully moved on from Westeros yet. Does that mean she's ready to reprise her role in a continuation of Thrones? Well, not exactly. It's a "maybe" for her.
Sophie Turner wonders what Sansa is up to after Game of Thrones
While speaking with Variety about her new show Joan, Turner was asked if she'd ever return to Game of Thrones. While she didn't shoot the idea down, she was clear about what the conditions would need to be: "Maybe. I mean, it would have to be the exact same cast and the exact same crew otherwise I wouldn’t go back and that would just be Season 9, and I don’t think we’re going to do a Season 9, but, I mean, I loved playing Sansa, and I do wonder often what would she be doing now."
"Where would she be five years later, what would she be doing? Would she still be queen in the North? Would she be a good ruler? Would there be some other kind of terrible war that’s happened? I’d love to see it."
We'd love to see it, too! That said, I think most Thrones fans would be in agreement that the conditions would have to be right. The same cast and crew, yes, but also a strong enough story that would warrant a revisit. Turner's former co-star Kit Harington, who played Jon Snow for all eight seasons, tried to get a spinoff up and running about his character, but it was ultimately shelved. The English actor, 37, has explained that they just couldn't get the story right.
While speaking with Collider in August, the Industry actor shared: "With ours, it was just about not finding the right story and not finding something that was worth doing, to bring me back to it and to stay in it. It just made less sense, the longer we went on with it, so we recanted."
As much as I'd love to see characters like Sansa and Jon back on my screen, it's probably for the best that there are no Game of Thrones sequel series in the works. Plus, we've already got multiple spinoff shows with prequels House of the Dragon and A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, in addition to others that are in the development stage.
As for where you can see Turner, her six-part crime series Joan debuted on ITV on September 29, based on the true story of a housewife-turned-thief. For viewers in the U.S., the show premieres on The CW this week on October 2. Considering how talented Turner is, it's probably worth checking out even if just for her performance.
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