Maisie Williams isn’t here to make our dreams come true, at least not right now. During a recent interview with GQ Magazine, the actress spoke about her time on Game of Thrones and why she isn’t so sure that she’d want to step back into the role of the adventurous, rough and tumble, Arya Stark. When the series bowed out in May 2019, lots of characters had decently open-ended last looks, with Jon Snow (Kit Harington) riding North alongside the wildlings, Bran Stark (Isaac Hempstead Wright) becoming the King of Westeros, and Sansa Stark (Sophie Turner) officially named the Queen of the North. While any of these characters could receive a spin-off surrounding their lives after the events of that final season, Arya’s was the one that had fans scratching their heads. In her final moments, the little rascal was preparing to set sail and discover what lies beyond the maps, making all of us cheer for some sort of Arya based adventure series.
However, according to Williams herself, this probably won’t ever happen. While the actress says she looks back at her time on the smash series “so fondly” and “with such pride,” she doesn’t miss it. That isn’t to say that she isn’t thankful for it. In fact, she refers to that part of her life as the “greatest thing that ever happened,” but as far as wishing she was still in the world of Arya Stark, Williams has mixed emotions. And why shouldn’t she? After eight seasons playing the same character, things are bound to get a little boring no matter how much you enjoy it.
For viewers at home, we watched Arya grow up from a wily child to a skilled assassin who became one of the major players in the final seasons of the series. But for Williams, she literally grew up on set, something that’s bound to bring up all sorts of feelings. During the interview, she recalls the day that a costumer brought a bra into her trailer. Of that experience, she said, “I think that when I started becoming a woman, I resented Arya because I couldn’t express who I was becoming. And then I also resented my body because it wasn’t aligned with the piece of me that the world celebrated.” While this would be a complete mind-melding mix-up for any of us, the fact that Williams was so young makes it all the more difficult to pick apart. She also had some big choices on her hands. Not coming from an acting background, she began to wonder “what do you want to do now?” and worried that she was being held back due to the concern of “being in one good thing and never doing anything again.”
But, for those of us still cheering on the idea of an Arya-based spin-off, all hope is not lost. Although she immediately follows it up by saying it’s not coming anytime soon, the Two Weeks To Live star says, “I’m not saying it would never happen,” but that, “it has to be the right time and the right people. It has to be right in the context of all other spin-offs and the universe of Game of Thrones.”
And even though she didn’t say it, we’re sure the actress who compares her other starring roles in projects such as The New Mutants and Then Came You as “being born again,” was thinking that fans should be satiated with all the new Thrones based content coming their way. After all, soon the prequel series House of the Dragon will land on HBO, shedding light (or fire) onto the story of the Targaryens and (allegedly), author George R.R. Martin is still typing away at the next installment in A Song of Ice and Fire - The Winds of Winter which has been long-awaited by fans of the series.
Meanwhile, there’s of course 2018’s novel Fire & Blood and a slew of other projects that are beginning to take form including the adventures surrounding Dunk & Egg. So, why can’t we just be happy with that?! Although all of these projects are very exciting to Thrones fans everywhere, we still want to see where our favorite badass assassin heads off to next and the life that begins to unfold for her. But, we won’t be pushy. Williams brought us one of the best character arcs over the entire series, and we’ll respect her answer when she says, “It has to be the right time for me.”