Every George R.R. Martin “Not a Blog” post, no matter how mundane or incendiary, is a de facto invitation to speculate wildly. That’s what happens when you’re roughly 37 years overdue on The Winds of Winter. But while the author’s latest entry has nothing to do with A Song of Ice and Fire‘s unfinished sixth novel, he still provided an opportunity to theorize about an exciting possibility in Westeros. He teased a potential new partnership with Arya herself, Maisie Williams. What could that be? Since the answer is “literally almost anything,” including projects unrelated to the Seven Kingdoms, we can have as much fun as we want throwing out ideas! And our very best is based on something else Martin wrote about in the same post.
A Game of Thrones play is coming to London next year, and it makes perfect sense for Maisie Williams to play her own fictional aunt, Lyanna Stark.
In a post titled “London Towne” Martin wrote about his decades long love of the iconic city. On his most recent trip there this past summer, the author said he saw People, Places, and Things, a play from Duncan Macmillan. The playwright, whom Martin also met with, is behind the upcoming adaptation that will bring Westeros to live theater. Macmillan is writing The Iron Throne, which will tell the story of the infamous and world-changing Tourney at Harrenhal when the show likely debuts in 2025. The Tourney at Harrenhal is where Rhaegar Targaryen and Lyanna Stark fell in love. Their romance led to Robert’s Rebellion, the end of House Targaryen’s reign in Westeros, and the birth of Jon Snow.
Martin said he thinks the play based on the tourney is in “good hands.” He also heard “the show is coming along splendidly” and it should have its “choice of theatres.” That’s all wonderful news for fans of the Seven Kingdoms. (Especially since Martin has, uh, not exactly been excited about every recent adaptation of his work.) But the real intrigue of this London trip came from a different meeting he had with someone else connected to Westeros.
Martin wrote, “We also got together with Maisie Williams for pizza and pasta, and talked about… well, no, better not get into that, do not want to jinx it. But it could be so much fun.”
C’mon, George. C’mon. We’re trying to live our lives over here! You can’t just casually drop Balerion-sized bombs like that. But fine, if you must we must also. We’re happy to take this opportunity to dream of spring. And since you spoke of this meeting with Maisie Williams in a post where you also talked a lot about a play based on the Tourney of Harrenhal, we made the most obvious connection our Westeros-soaked brains could: you talked to her about starring in The Iron Throne as Lyanna Stark because Arya looked just like her late aunt.
In A Song of Ice and Fire, Arya— with her brown hair, long face, and grey eyes—looks very much like a Stark. She stands in sharp contrast to her sister Sansa, the redhead who is considered among the most beautiful ladies in the world, the one who looks more like her mother’s side of House Tully. The other girls at Winterfell cruelly mock the youngest Stark daughter and call her Arya Horseface. The strong-willed, adventurous, athletic, and nimble Arya is also often confused for a boy. But some find Arya to be quite beautiful, including her father Lord Eddard. He thinks his daughter looks a lot like his sister Lyanna. Bran himself thinks the same thing when he sees a vision of Lyanna, who was also physically built the same as Arya.
Lyanna and Arya didn’t resemble one another in just looks, either. They were cut from the same cloth. Lyanna was daring, brash, and brave. Some called her “wild.” Rhaegar seemingly fell in love with her because Lyanna anonymously entered the Tourney at Harrenhal to get vengeance for Howland Reed against some disrespectful squires.
Lyanna was a force of nature who also had a gentle side. (She cried when she heard Rhaegar sing for the first time.) She was as rough as she was beautiful, loyal to her family and friends, and entirely Stark in every way. Audiences will fall in love with her when they truly get to meet the not-so-ladylike Lady of Winterfell. The Iron Throne will need an actress who can capture all of that when she walks onstage.
We know Maisie Williams can do all of that and so does George R.R. Martin. We also know she looks just like Arya’s aunt. If she were to play Lyanna Stark in the play it would be, as Martin said, “so much fun.”
If, somehow, that exact possibility is what Martin actually was teasing in his post, we’ll just have to hope we didn’t jinx it.
Mikey Walsh is a staff writer at Nerdist. You can follow him on Bluesky at @burgermike. And also anywhere someone is ranking the Targaryen kings.
