Daniel Day-Lewis in Westeros: 10 Game of Thrones Roles He Was Born to Play

Daniel Day-Lewis has three Oscars, a stack of all-timer performances (There Will Be Blood, Lincoln, My Left Foot), and the vibe of someone who could stare straight through your soul and then build a chair from scratch about it. Game of Thrones mostly nailed its casting, but it’s fun to imagine DDL dropping into Westeros like a tactical nuke. Here’s the thought experiment: which roles could he have played, and how would they feel with his very specific, very intense energy?

Ten Thrones roles Daniel Day-Lewis could have absolutely reprogrammed

1. Jaqen H'ghar (reimagined)
   Jaqen is the elegant, eerie Faceless Man who nudges a prison-bound Arya Stark toward becoming, well, nobody. Tom Wlaschiha gave the character a polite, inscrutable cool. Picture Day-Lewis aging him up: less catlike assassin, more world-weary phantom who wins with mind games over sword fights. He’d turn every sentence into a riddle you feel in your spine.

2. Maester Aemon
   The blind scholar of Castle Black, Aemon Targaryen is gentle, razor-sharp, and the Night’s Watch’s moral compass. His scenes with Jon Snow hum with compassion and history. Day-Lewis thrives on contrasts like this: frail body, undimmed mind. He’d bring the kind of quiet gravitas that makes a fireside chat hit harder than a battle.

3. Qyburn
   Banished from the Citadel for experiments that would get you jailed in any century, Qyburn climbs the ladder as Cersei’s secret-weapon consigliere and eventually her Hand. DDL loves a morally squiggly guy with a soft voice and a scalpel behind his back. Imagine him overseeing Grand Maester Pycelle’s final moments while Light of the Seven swells in the background. Chills.

4. Barristan Selmy
   Ser Barristan the Bold served Aerys II and Robert Baratheon, got tossed aside by Joffrey, then joined Daenerys in Meereen. On the show, he dies fighting the Sons of the Harpy; in the books, he’s still in play. Day-Lewis could have leaned into the legend of a knight whose honor wasn’t theater. With him, that mentor-mentee texture with Daenerys might have landed like a battered father-daughter bond.

5. Jeor Mormont
   The 997th Lord Commander, a.k.a. the Old Bear, gives up his titles after his son Jorah is caught selling poachers into slavery. He gifts Jon Snow Longclaw and later dies at Craster’s Keep. DDL as a stoic, burdened leader who carries pride, disappointment, and the weight of the wall in his posture? That’s the kind of quiet tragedy he eats for breakfast.

6. Roose Bolton
   Lord of the Dreadfort turned Warden of the North after the Red Wedding, Roose is ice water in human form. He personally kills Robb Stark and delivers the line everyone still hears in their nightmares:

   'The Lannisters send their regards.'

   Day-Lewis could dial that stillness even lower until it’s menacing. And his scenes opposite Iwan Rheon’s feral Ramsay would be a study in predator vs. rabid dog.

7. Stannis Baratheon
   Rigid, lonely, brittle with ambition, and very, very persuadable. Stannis’ worst decision — sacrificing his daughter — is one of the show’s bleakest turns and accelerates his ruin. With DDL, the entire arc gets scarier and sadder. He’d mine the emptiness, the anger, the almost pitiable need to be the rightful king. Think an abandoned-my-child-level meltdown, but colder.

8. The High Sparrow
   He builds a piety movement from the alleys and uses shame, cells, and sermons to topple the powerful. You’re not supposed to like him, and yet you can’t dismiss him. Day-Lewis could tilt the whole performance saintly and threatening at once — relentless in silence, lethal in a whisper. The stare-downs with Cersei would’ve been appointment TV.

9. Ned Stark
   Ned dies in season 1, and yet his code hangs over the show like winter itself. Sean Bean was perfect. Still, it’s intriguing to imagine Day-Lewis as a quieter, even more interior Lord Eddard — a man carving honor into a world designed to sand it down. Fewer speeches, more soul.

10. Tywin Lannister
    Charles Dance already turned Tywin into a masterclass: austere, surgical, funny in a way that cuts. Day-Lewis would keep the blade but add tragedy to the hilt — a patriarch whose hunger for legacy curdled into a life no one could love. The room temperature drops when he enters, and somehow, you still feel a pulse of regret under the armor.

That’s a wide range — schemers, saints, knights, mentors. Exactly the sandbox where the Phantom Thread star tends to build cathedrals.

Quick Thrones refresher

Title: Game of Thrones. 8 seasons, 73 episodes. Showrunners: David Benioff and D.B. Weiss. Rotten Tomatoes scores: 89% critics, 85% audience. Streaming in the U.S. on Max.

Which role would you hand him? And who did I miss?