When TV phenomenon Breaking Bad ended, you couldn’t help but wonder what was next for its incredible star Bryan Cranston. A blockbuster? An Oscar nomination? A dive into arthouse films? Well, he ended up doing all three with Godzilla, Trumbo and Wakefield respectively (and much, much more).
As for the equally excellent Aaron Paul? The future wasn’t so kind. He acted his ass off in Need for Speed (which sucked), got overshadowed by Helen Mirren and Alan Rickman in Eye in the Sky (amazing film), and currently leads B-movie schlock no-one’s heard of. His biggest post-Breaking Bad role has probably been the voice of loser flatmate Todd in BoJack Horseman and he’s also appearing in Westworld: Season 3, so maybe his career isn’t all that unfortunate.
Now that Game of Thrones has wrapped, what does the future hold for its stars? I can predict this with 100% scientific accuracy, thanks to the unquestionable power of tarot cards and IMDb.
I Think We’re Alone Now
Peter Dinklage
Outside his breakthrough role as Tyrion, Dinklage has been working like a madman and gaining significant ground. We saw him in last year’s biggest film, Avengers: Infinity War, as well as Oscar nominee Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri. As for lead roles, he starred alongside Elle Fanning in post-apocalypse sci-fi I Think We’re Alone Now and portrayed French actor Hervé Villechaize in HBO’s bio-flick My Dinner with Hervé.
He’s also getting that juicy voicework money. Not only is he coming back for the next Angry Birds Movie, he’s also lending his chords to The Croods 2 (I’m stonkingly in love with the original). As for future on-screen appearances, Dinklage looks set for more limelight roles in based-on-a-book properties with Sony’s Rumpelstiltskin, a feature adaptation of Pär Lagerkvist’s novel The Dwarf, and Joe Lansdale’s The Thicket where he plays a bounty hunter.
Peter Dinklage’s career tarot card: Jupiter’s Hola Hoop, which predicts a consistently revolving run of successes for his acting career.
Dredd
Lena Headey
There probably won’t be a character in Lena Headey’s career as memorable as Cersei Lannister. I say that partly as a compliment to how damn well she played that vicious part, and partly as a comment on her roles in some pretty forgettable films. If you’ve seen neither Pride and Prejudice and Zombies nor The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones, be sure to thank the lords of the seven realms.
Look back before the boom of Thrones though, Headey’s maintained a respectable career with significant roles in the box office smash 300 and cult favourite Dredd. It’s not hard to imagine her popping up in more genre favourites or simply touring Comic-Cons for as long as she pleases. Her next few films though—Crooks, The Flood and Gunpowder Milkshake—sound too generic to write about (well, maybe not Gunpowder Milkshake).
Lena Headey’s career tarot card: The Lips of Libra, which suggests Headey will be at peace with her career—whether plentiful or not.
Solo: A Star Wars Story
Emilia Clarke
As the character who influenced too many real-life parents to name their children Daenerys and Khaleesi, Clarke got a massive Hollywood boost during her time with Thrones. She’s starred in a tearjerking romance film, a Terminator sequel, and A Star Wars Story.
The director of Salt and Dead Calm places Clarke at the head of upcoming crime thriller Above Suspicion, based on Joe Sharkey’s novel. She’ll also co-star with Oscar winner Emma Thompson and Eastern screen legend Michelle Yeoh (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon) for Bridesmaids director Paul Feig’s Last Christmas.
Emilia Clarke’s career tarot card: The Claw-shaped Moon, which seems pretty confident that Clarke will continue a star-studded career.
The Death and Life of John F Donovan
Kit Harington
Jon Snow, on the other hand, has never seen his big break on the cinema. He led TV show movie Spooks: The Greater Good and voiced a pretty forgettable character in the How to Train Your Dragon sequels. He even tried the arthouse scene with Xavier Dolan’s critically slaughtered The Death and Life of John F Donovan. Bless him, he’s tried.
What’s next for Harington? Diddly squat, it seems. Perhaps he’ll make a surprise appearance in a new Marvel film. Or maybe he’ll follow in Jack “Joffrey” Gleeson’s footsteps, who went from playing the anti-Christ to being actual Jesus.
Kit Harington’s career tarot card: The Eighth Black Moon of Pluto, a card inscribed with the words: “Reply Hazy. Try Again Later.”
Dark Phoenix
Sophie Turner
Moving from Sansa Stark to Jean Grey? An excellent longterm career move, one would rightly think, before the merciless hand of Disney snatched the future of Fox’s X-Men franchise away. At least Turner’s leading the next film of the series, Dark Phoenix, which I pray to Bran is better than Apocalypse. She’s starred in some junk too, including straight-to-the-bin teen flick Time Freak which saw Asa Butterfield as a dumped boyfriend trying to manipulate Turner’s character back into a relationship via time-travel.
Still, one of the most absorbing aspects of Thrones was seeing Turner’s growth as both an actor and human being. She’s just getting started and her current star power won’t be dragged down by a bombing Dark Phoenix. And if that film’s a dark horse hit? Well, maybe it’ll make the mouse think twice.
Sophie Turner’s career tarot card: The High Priestess of Mars, which foresees a career filled with valour.
Cyberbully
Maisie Williams
You can draw parallels between Williams and Turner. Her acting prowess as Arya Stark has seen an equally satisfying growth, the crumbling X-Men series also welcomes her in The New Mutants, and—in the strangest of coincidences—she too has been Butterfield’s romantic interest in a junky teen film.
However, she’s also chosen more obscure roles in art films like Mary Shelley and The Falling. She even carried an entire movie by herself in 2015’s Cyberbully. There’s an outside chance The New Mutants will propel her into more blockbuster features. Given her early filmography though, it seems more likely she’ll continue to appear in films that challenge her. Either way, she’s just getting started.
Maisie William’s career tarot card: A Lone Hoof, an appendage that may not always be in sight but will always leave imprints on the path it takes.
Gods of Egypt
Nikolaj Coster-Waldau
One thing you can say about Jamie Lannister: he gets around. So does Coster-Waldau. His filmography stretches long before Thrones and includes a heap of films made in his home country Denmark (Headhunters is superb), though the series gave him bigger opportunities starring alongside Jessica Chastain in Mama and Tom Cruise in Oblivion.
He’s also starred in some absolute shitters, including love triangle comedy The Other Woman and five-time Razzie nominee Gods of Egypt, as well as some smaller films that made no impression like Shot Caller and Small Crimes. Even back home, the movies he appears in don’t exactly get washed with praise (Klown Forever, A Second Chance, 3 Things).
Still, he’s a total workhorse, and will most likely stay that way. Coster-Waldau’s leading Brian De Palma’s upcoming thriller Domino as well as an attention-grabbing Danish film about weird suicides and polar bears.
Nikolaj Coster-Waldau career tarot card: The Ladle of Aquarius, which indicated a career that scoops gently from the vast pool of potential.
