A BBC miniseries about the infamous Guy Fawkes might end up starring Game of Thrones’ Kit Harington.
It appears that Game of Thrones’ Jon Snow Kit Harington is rounding a new small screen showcase revealing his more radical side. While the star continues to thrive on the HBO juggernaut series, it seems that Harington might get to display his non-Snow range in a television miniseries as one of England’s most infamous, mask-inspiring, would-be regicide plotters Guy Fawkes.
Trades such as Deadline report that Kit Harington is in talks to nab the notorious starring role in the BBC’s upcoming three-part television miniseries about Guy Fawkes tentatively titled Gunpowder. Interestingly enough, Harington is not only circling the project as its prospective star, but he will look to prove that he’s more than just a bastard who “knows nothing,” since he would also be attached to the project as a producer by way of his Thriker Films banner. There are also rumblings that Harington – who has shown interest in transitioning to screenwriting – might even write the script, though nothing has been confirmed.
Set in 1605, Gunpowder will center on the historical Gunpowder Plot in which thirteen conspirators attempted an explosive Catholic restoration against what was seen as an oppressive Protestant Church of England using barrels of gunpowder to blow up the Houses of Parliament, prospectively killing King James I in the process. Of course, while said plot was thwarted, it was the subsequently-hanged conspirator Guy Fawkes whose name became the caricature-inspiring face of the treasonous conspiracy, burned in effigy amongst firework displays each year on the night of the November 5 anniversary known as Guy Fawkes Day.
By strange coincidence, in a recent talk show appearance, Harington revealed a personal familial connection to the Gunpowder Plot, since he is the direct maternal descendant of the mastermind Robert Catesby. Compounding the coincidences, one of Harington’s paternal ancestors, John Harington, was in the Houses of Parliament when Fawkes’s piked head (in a very Game of Thrones fate,) was marched past the building and was even quoted as calling him “an ugly fellow.”
Gunpowder would be an interesting test for Kit Harington, who has already made some attempts on the big screen to cement himself some non-Thrones success, starring in underperforming blockbusters such 2014’s Pompeii and 2015’s MI-5. However, he’ll still have the stable global platform of Game of Thrones and his role as the back-from-the-dead, caste-defying bastard King of the North with a secret royal parentage Jon Snow for at least until 2018 as the show rounds its two abbreviated final seasons.
At this point nothing is confirmed about Gunpowder, even its final title. However, should the project get off the ground, it would be safe to assume that the BBC would air the miniseries sometime around the November 5 Guy Fawkes Day in a coming year.