There was barely scene from Game of Thrones’ final season which wasn’t shrouded in controversy, but perhaps one of the more divisive moments came with the death of Nathalie Emmanuel’s Missandei.
While Game of Thrones won countless accolades, breaking Emmy records and widely being hailed as the most impressive series on television, its lack of diversity left little to be applauded. It was a problem from the get-go.
John Boyega once called out the fantasy epic for having ‘no black people’.
When Missandei, one of the few non-white characters fortunate enough to reach the closing episodes of Game of Thrones was beheaded, The 13th director Ava Duvernay tweeted: ‘So… the one and only sister on the whole epic, years-long series? That’s what you wanna do? Okay.’
Sure, the backlash over that coffee cup was a lot, but Missandei’s death really hurt.
A year later, Nathalie – who also revealed her co-star Emilia Clarke defended her from an actor’s crude comments over an outfit – says the reaction to her character’s death made her ‘reflect a lot more about race and diversity’.
‘At the end of the day, if there’s ever a show on the level of Game of Thrones again, representation has to be part of the conversation from the beginning,’ she told Vogue.co.uk.
‘That way, there’s no single person who has to represent every other person of colour. It’s a conversation I used to have a lot with Jacob [Anderson], who played Grey Worm, the only other major non-white character in the series.
‘We were always really conscious of how much our being part of Game of Thrones mattered to people. It made us really protective of Missandei and Grey Worm.’
Game of Thrones is available to stream on NOW TV.
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