Kit Harrington is giving up Westeros for the Marvel Cinematic Universe but that doesn’t mean he’s going to put down his sword. Disney announced at the D23 Expo in Anaheim, Calif., that the actor, who portrayed Jon Snow on Game of Thrones from 2011 to 2019, has officially joined the MCU. Harrington will appear in 2020’s The Eternals, alongside Angelina Jolie, Salma Hayek and Kumail Nanjiani. The film will also reunite him with his GoT brother Richard Madden, who played Robb Stark.
Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige announced that Harington would be playing the role of Dane Whitman, a non-Eternal, in the upcoming film, due out Nov. 6, 2020. Comic fans know that Whitman becomes the sword-slinging superhero known as Black Knight. The movie is based on a series of comic books of the same name first published in 1976. They follow a group of immortal beings who spent time among humans, influencing their civilizations.
While Marvel fans are no doubt enthused by the announcement of another popular actor joining the ranks of the MCU, the news wasn’t exactly what attendees were hoping: many had bought into a widespread rumor that Harington would take on the role of Wolverine, the ferocious mutant previously played by Hugh Jackman in 20th Century Fox’s X-Men franchise.
Harington’s other action movie cred comes by way of 2015’s MI-5, in which he works to save London from a terrorist attack, and Pompeii, the 2014 film co-starring The Matrix’s Carrie-Anne Moss.
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