Emilia Clarke was once set to appear in Iron Man 3

Last Updated on July 30, 2021

After the series GAME OF THRONES became an instant hit for HBO the young, unknown cast members were soon having their pick of roles in major projects. Star Emilia Clarke has had the most notable movie career during the series run, landing roles in STAR WARS and TERMINATOR films, and now it’s been revealed by IRON MAN 3 writer Drew Pearce that the star almost had a place in the biggest movie franchise of all time.

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Pearce took to Instagram to post a picture of his nametag from the IRON MAN 3 table read all those years ago, and in the caption revealed that Clarke was there doing a read for an unspecified role.

"My finest hour: at an early Iron Man Three table read," he wrote. "Downey, Cheadle, Emilia Clarke (long story, the script changed)… all vaguely terrifying."

Okay, so now the speculation train can start chugging as we all start to guess what her role was before the big change. A lot of people are suspecting hers was that of Maya Hansen, the character who we learn later on was working with the bad guys all along on the Extremis project, played in the movie by Rebecca Hall. Anyone familiar with the history of the movie knows the role was once much bigger in the original script, as she was set to be the main villain as Aldrich Killian (Guy Pearce) and The Mandarin/Trevor Slattery (Ben Kingsley) were supporting baddies. But, Marvel had them change the script fearing that having a female villain would hurt merchandising sales.

However, that doesn’t seem right with me. That was a major role, and even though it was changed a bit I don’t think it would warrant Clarke leaving the role entirely and forcing the team to find someone new last minute. Me thinks that it was simply a character once included in the movie, but due to rewrites was cut from the final script.

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This kind of stuff happens in the movies all the time, and while it was probably a big bummer for Clarke it’s not like it was the end of her career. At that point, the second season of GAME OF THRONES was airing and just starting its rise to megahit status, and the offers kept coming for her from then on. Given that the show was still in early stages when they were starting IM3, it would make sense that she would have a noticeable-but-not-massive role that could’ve been cut.

But who knows? Maybe she did play Hansen at one point and changes in the script resulted in things falling through. Perhaps Clarke will shed some light on the topic down the road, and with a more open schedule now, there’s plenty of time for her to make her MCU entrance.