Key Takeaways
- Arya Stark is a fan-favorite character who survived Game of Thrones & followed her own path.
- West of Westeros is uncharted territory with creatures & mysteries that could lead Arya to new adventures.
- Maisie Williams is open to revisiting her role as Arya and a potential Game of Thrones movie could redeem her character’s arc.
Winter has come and gone, but Game of Thrones is just as popular as ever. HBO delivered eight seasons of the hit series, based on George R.R. Martin’s “A Song of Ice and Fire books.” While Game of Thrones season 8 divided fandom and even led to a petition calling for it to be remade, the story didn’t end there.
HBO has powered forward with an expanding slate of spin-offs, but so far, only the House of the Dragon prequel series has aired. Plans for a prequel based on The Long Night were scrapped, while the Kit Harrington-led Jon Snow sequel series was also
shelved. With news that a Game of Thrones movie is on the way, one character is perfect to lead the charge in to the IP’s next chapter.
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What’s west of Westeros?
Similar to Martin’s books, Maisie Williams’ live-action version of Arya Stark quickly became a fan-favorite. Like siblings Bran and Sansa, Arya underwent a massive arc during the events of the show and was even responsible for besting the Night King – arguably making her the Prince That Was Promised. Arya survived the saga and was last seen sailing ‘west’ of Westeros. Beyond this, Martin has explained Lonely Light is the smallest of the Iron Islands, with the islands of Aegon, Rhaenys, and Visenya being the only things charted beyond that in the Known World.
While Martin is known for fleshing out the continents of Westeros and Essos, the question of what’s west of Westeros is one he’s yet to really tap into. Arya was shaped by those who she met on her travels, and with Essie Davis’ Lady Crane suggesting that the edge of the world might be all that’s west of Westeros, it piqued Arya’s interest. In reality, several people have gone that way before, with Elissa Farman being the most famous to head that way. Farman is similar to Arya in a lot of ways, and with theories about her stealing the eggs that eventually become Daenerys Targaryen’s brood, she’s important to the mythos.
West of the Iron Islands is the Sunset Sea. This is a treacherous place that is reportedly impossible to cross, although several Ironborn claim to have done it and found a landmass over there. As for the oceans themselves, they’re full of kraken, leviathans, and even mythical sea dragons which could tie into Game of Thrones’ love of those dragons. Brandon the Shipwright, King in the North, famously tried to sail the Sunset Sea thousands of years ago, but because he was never seen again, his crypt at Winterfell remains empty. If anyone has settled in the west, there’s a chance they’s some distant relative of Arya.
Game of Thrones made it clear that Arya is a skilled fighter, but with all sorts of weird and wonderful creatures surely to the west of Westeros, it could give fans a very different kind of show. Martin has also explained his love of Lord of the Rings, so with Frodo sailing west for the Undying Land at the end of his story, it’s possible this is a nod to that. While HBO could leave Arya’s story where it is, there are growing hints that Williams will be back to lead the upcoming Game of Thrones movie.
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An Arya Stark movie can Redeem Game of Thrones Season 8
Aside from House of the Dragon and the upcoming A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, there are several other projects in the work. Given their place in the timeline, none have Maisie Williams attached, but after news of the new movie broke, Martin conveniently hinted that he could be returning to Arya’s story on his Not a Blog site:
“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,” Martin said. “But it could be so much fun.”
There were complaints that Game of Thrones put the focus on the generic Jon Snow and made Daenerys’ turn to becoming the Mad Queen too quick, while others say season 8 failed Arya. Her importance was largely overlooked, and even after she beat the Night King, she was still little more than a background character who turned down a chance at love with Gendry, left her family behind, and sailed off into the unknown to become ‘no one’ again.
Arya’s time at the House of Black and White in season 5 tried to give Arya her own meatier arc, but again, it fell short. This could be one of the reasons why Martin has already confirmed a planned TV series set in Braavos has been canned. Still, elements of this could still be revisited in an Arya spin-off, with there still being questions about the Faceless Men and what was really going on with Jaqen H’ghar. Bringing back Tom Wlaschiha as the shadowy head of the Faceless Men would be another major coup for an Arya project.
At least Williams sounds like she’s open to returning, especially after she told The Sunday Times that she felt ‘lost’ during her time on Game of Thrones. The young actor told the outlet:
“I was so lost for so long and I knew that I was, and when I couldn’t pin down what I felt my identity was within that, it brought me a lot of discomfort. Now I feel a lot more comfortable in my own skin. It’s hard to even put myself back there and talk about how tough it was just because I think it’s done.”
That doesn’t mean Williams doesn’t have a lot of love for Arya, and having since reprized her role for Player First Games’ MultiVersus, she’s seemingly okay with still playing the character.
Assuming that Martin’s final two books in the series are anything like the show, there will surely be a resurgence in Arya’s popularity, and depending on whether the books flesh out her journey west a little more, possible calls for a sequel. The problem is, there’s no news on when Martin is going to release The Winds of Winter, let alone A Dream of Spring. Also, any Arya spin-off is likely to be hit with fears that it’s an unofficial Game of Thrones season 9 that serves as a dumping ground for characters and storylines that become prominent in the final two books but were unable to fit into the final season.
All of the current Game of Thrones projects are based on Martin’s original source material, and while many say the series lost its way when it overtook the books, an Arya series or movie could redeem the franchise and prove it doesn’t just have to rely on Martin’s words. Considering Williams is currently 27, she realistically wouldn’t be returning to the role for a few years, which would make for an interesting dynamic of a more mature and hardened Arya finding something west of Westeros after years of battling the Sunset Sea. The problem is, like the Jon Snow series falling apart because Martin and the team couldn’t find a story worth telling, there has to be a genuine reason to revisit the surly Stark.
