With Game of Thrones almost a year in the rear-view mirror as an iconic part of TV history, it’s worth looking back at the many what-ifs when it came to casting choices. While most of the casting was just about perfect, sometimes a certain twist of fate led to one actor playing a different role on the same show.
It turns out Jason Momoa wasn’t the first choice in playing Khal Drogo during the first season in 2011. As one of the more despised and early departed characters on GoT, it showed audiences Daenerys in a situation she didn’t want to be in. Through an arranged marriage with Khal, she ultimately aborted their own child and then killed him after he suffered a fateful infection.
Because Khal Drogo was near impossible to cast, it shouldn’t surprise anyone Momoa ultimately became the final choice after numerous auditions.
Conan Stevens auditioned for the role, among others
Any avid watcher of GoT remembers some of the minor characters/actors playing sideline roles in the plot developments. One of those characters was Gregor Clegane, otherwise known as “The Mountain.”
While only seen occasionally, Conan Stevens was ultimately cast in this role after first trying out for Khal Drogo.
According to Screen Rant, Stevens was far from the first actor to try out for the Khal role. For whatever reason, Stevens just didn’t have the right look Benioff and Weiss were looking for when casting.
Based on character descriptions from the book, Khal Drogo was supposed to be virility with a capital V. As a warlord of the Dothraki, he was known for being one of the fiercest warriors in the known world, including never being defeated in battle.
Finding an actor who could resemble those kinds of descriptions wasn’t always easy without dipping into the A-list pool. After only acting in a couple of shows, Momoa managed to impress Benioff and Weiss during the audition process.
Momoa was clearly going to become like a new Schwarzenegger or The Rock
It’s pretty clear now Benioff and Weiss were looking for someone more shredded than Conan Stevens or any other unknown. Screen Rant notes David Harewood even tried out for the role, yet was ultimately rejected.
Only Momoa managed to impress the showrunners since he looked like he could realistically become a new Arnold Schwarzenegger or Dwayne Johnson. Besides, he was still a virtual unknown then outside of a role on Baywatch: Hawaii and an obscure soap opera. Apparently Benioff and Weiss took Momoa casting suggestions from users on a fan-casting website.
During his audition, Momoa did a ceremonial dance the Dothraki were known to do, aka the haka. Video of this audition dance has made the rounds on YouTube, and he clearly threw every ounce of energy he had into presenting it. At least he can say he more or less danced his way into progressing his career.
Had it not have been for his big break on Game of Thrones, it might not have given him the jumpstart necessary toward playing the new Conan the Barbarian the same year, then being cast as Aquaman a few years later.
Some roles from books are sometimes challenging to cast
The above story of Momoa’s big break goes to show how some fantasy characters are becoming harder to cast, especially when given near impossible traits for an actor to mimic.
Not that other iconic roles still don’t go through hundreds of auditions, something certainly not new. Many iconic characters in film history went through dozens if not hundreds of auditions to find the right actor/actress.
It seems the role of Khal Drogo went through as many auditions as all the other GoT leads. Based on past lists of actors who tried out for roles from Jon Snow to Daenerys Targaryen, the show could have looked very different had Benioff and Weiss had any changes of heart by fans on message boards.
