The Daario Naharis actor change was most dramatic recasting with Michiel Huisman taking over the role from Ed Skrein in season 4. The character of Daario Naharis debuted in the season 3 episode "Second Sons," and grew into a more substantial role during season 4. Ed Skrein portrayed the character for three episodes until Huisman took over the role in season 4, and it resulted in audience confusion. Unlike the time-jump actor changes in there were no in-universe reasons for the Daario Naharis recast when season 4 aired in 2014.
Once Huisman took over the role in season 4, he played a prominent character in the HBO series as one of Daenerys Targaryen's key allies before eventually also becoming her lover. Alongside , Michiel Huisman's Daario pledged allegiance to Daenerys and succeeded in conquering the cities of Yunkai and Meereen. Despite being one of her most important allies, he was left behind when Daenerys took her army to Westeros and the character was never seen again. Even years after the series ended, the truth behind the Daario Naharis recasting on remains a bit of a mystery.
Given how short-lived Ed Skrein's time on was, there was a lot of interest in what went on behind the scenes that led to him leaving the show. Early reports indicated that the English actor left ahead of season 4 to star in insteadbut Skrein was adamant that this wasn't exactly the case. After the role was recast, the actor revealed the truth about why he left the series, thus leading Michiel Huisman to take over. In an interview , Skrein explained that the change came as a result of "" reasons rather than simply his role in the fourth movie.
Game of Thrones
According to Ed Skrein, his original plan was to play Daario Naharis on for the long term — or at least until . It certainly seems like Skrein leaving the series was not entirely his decision. It's prevalent in this industry to use the term "" to describe a situation when two parties can't reach a resolution, which seems to be the apt description for the recasting decision. Whether creative decisions or contract disputes, the team behind felt like the best option was to change actors.
Considering how Huisman's portrayal of Daario differs considerably compared to Skrein's, it indicates that ' recast efforts moved fast. It was a dramatic change of appearance for the character, as the long-haired and fresh face of Ed Skrein quickly turned to Michiel Huisman's short hair and bearded, brooding face as Daenerys' romantic interest in season 4.
Throughout its eight-season run, there were plenty of other characters that saw new actors replacing older ones. Among these are Myrcella and Tommen Baratheon, Leaf, Dickon Tarly, and Rickard Karstark. though this decision made sense. He's been played by Conan Stevens, Ian Whyte, and finally Hafþór Júlíus Björnsson until the end of the show. Given the character's lack of dialogue and quick appearances, it wasn't as noticeable when Björnsson finally took the role permanently in season 4.
Another actor switch that made sense was the Night King. Both Richard Brake and Vladimír Furdík played the titular villain. The Night King also had no dialogue and was covered in heavy prosthetics. Therefore, the change wasn't observable for most of the audience. Tommen's and Myrcella Baratheon's recasting also made more sense than that of Daario's in . As the series went on, their characters were upgraded to supporting roles, but before that, they were basically extras and never in the spotlight.
Although Daario Naharis was supposedly still in Meereen come ' controversial final season, many were disappointed not to see Michiel Huisman return to Daenerys' army before the series finale. In terms of the story, the reason to leave Huisman's Daario Naharis back in Meereen was likely because Daenerys would have a new, series-changing love interest in season 7.
After Tyrion advised Daenerys to end her romance with Michiel Huisman's Daario in the season 6 finale, she soon fell in love with the secret Targaryen heir Jon Snow upon allying with him. While Daenerys managed to take King's Landing without the help of Daario Naharis, he was better off staying in Meereen, where he didn't have to see his queen destroy a city and end up assassinated by her new lover.
prequel series , but unlike how the Daario recast happened, the prequel planned its actor changes from the beginning. A screen adaptation of George R.R. Martin's novel, uses time jumps to cover vast parts of House Targaryen's reign. This meant the show had recasts of its own, although recasts had a narrative reason and were deliberate.
The most notable of these recasts were initial Rhaenyra Targaryen actor Milly Alcock and Alicent Hightower actor Emily Carey being respectively replaced by Emma D’Arcy and Olivia Cooke in season 1, episode 6, which was necessary to reflect how the characters aged. Likewise, the same also happened to Rhaenyra and Alicent's children in season 1, episode 8, which showed the younger generation rising up to slowly assume their positions in the coming Dance of the Dragons.
HBO currently has . While many are prequels like others such as the untitled Jon Snow spinoff, will take place in the same era as meaning there are opportunities for characters like Daario Naharis to return. Currently, there is no news on whether Daario will return in a future spinoff. Not much is known about what Daario did after season six, but the upcoming book could provide some answers.
The book adventures of Daario will lend themselves to the character appearing in a future spinoff — or even getting one of his own should his story arc be interesting and deep enough — remains unclear. Even with the actor change, Daario was one of the most interesting and under-explored characters. Should HBO consider which characters to bring back in a spinoff, Michael Huisman's Daario should be a prime candidate.
While the Daario Naharis actor change was dramatic, both actors have had fairly active careers since leaving . Ed Skrein’s departure did indeed coincide with him taking the starring role in , however, the movie was a critical and financial disappointment that stopped any plans to continue the franchise. Skrein bounced back with a memorable villain role as Francis in followed by more villain roles in and in Barry Jenkins’ Oscar-winning He will next be seen as part of the cast of
Michiel Huisman had already started to build a respectable movie career while on with the drama and the underrated horror movie After ended, he jumped aboard another popular series with Mike Flanagan’s and later appeared in the first season of. More recently, Huisman appeared in the holiday fantasy movieIn a fun twist of fate, both Skrein and Huisman will appear together in
