Kit Harington and Peter Dinklage hadn’t sat in a room together since the final scene of Game of Thrones wrapped seven years ago. When Variety finally got them back in front of a camera for its Actors on Actors series, the conversation went somewhere neither of them expected — straight past nostalgia and into rehab, sobriety, and what it actually cost them to spend a decade playing Jon Snow and Tyrion Lannister.
Table of Contents
- Why this was their first real reunion in seven years
- What Kit Harington revealed about the show’s ending
- How Peter Dinklage’s life looked different from the younger cast
- Where both actors are now
- Frequently asked questions about Kit Harington and Peter Dinklage’s reunion
Why this was their first real reunion in seven years
Kit Harington and Peter Dinklage’s conversation, published by Variety in June 2026, marked the first time the two had spoken publicly together since Game of Thrones concluded on HBO in 2019. Both actors had spent the better part of a decade on the same sets, playing characters whose fates were tied together across eight seasons, yet Variety’s framing made clear this wasn’t a routine press reunion — it was two men in their late 30s and 50s taking real stock of what the show had done to them.
Dinklage set the tone early, telling Harington bluntly, “Let’s embarrass the fuck out of each other,” before the two moved into a conversation that touched on nudity, addiction, parenthood, and the strange experience of aging in public after a show that consumed most of their adult lives.
What Kit Harington revealed about the show’s ending
Kit Harington and Peter Dinklage’s reunion produced one of the more candid disclosures either actor has made about the show’s conclusion. Harington told Dinklage he checked into rehab as the final season was still airing: “I decided to go to rehab as Episode 1 was airing, and I was there for six weeks. I needed to get sober. I needed to get my head on straight.” That decision meant Harington never actually watched the finale everyone else was reacting to in real time.
He described the period afterward as similarly disorienting, telling Dinklage he took a year off to recover before COVID hit almost immediately once he was ready to reengage with work. “It allowed me to figure out — not to be too wanky — who I was. And whether I really wanted to do this anymore, talking bluntly,” Harington said, adding that he’d spent much of his time on Game of Thrones “working from a place of pain.”
“My first kid was born at the end of the second season,” Dinklage told Harington, contrasting his own experience of the show’s decade-long run with Harington’s, which began in his early 20s.
How Peter Dinklage’s life looked different from the younger cast
Kit Harington and Peter Dinklage’s conversation highlighted just how differently the show shaped each of their lives depending on where they were when it started. Dinklage, who won three Emmys for playing Tyrion Lannister, described his daughter growing up partly in Ireland during production, splitting her year there and developing an Irish accent — a detail that underscored how much of his own family life unfolded around the show’s shooting schedule rather than apart from it.
Harington, by contrast, described starting the series still learning the basics of screen acting. He recalled his very first scene being opposite Dinklage, saying, “I’ve just got to be really still. That’s acting for cameras. To be as still as I possibly can be, then say my lines, then go back to stillness.” He also admitted that early in the show’s run, his understanding of HBO’s prestige came entirely from The Sopranos, having no real frame of reference for the scale the show would eventually reach.
Where both actors are now
Kit Harington and Peter Dinklage have both moved into new chapters since the interview, and Variety made sure to frame the conversation around that forward motion rather than pure nostalgia. Harington, now 39, is a series regular on HBO’s Industry, while Dinklage, 56, recently guest-starred on FX’s The Lowdown — both projects notably separate from the Westeros universe that made them famous.
That distance gave the reunion a different texture than typical franchise-reunion press. Rather than teasing potential returns to Game of Thrones, the conversation stayed focused on what came after: recovery, family, and the process of figuring out who they were once the show that had defined most of their adult lives was finally over. For a franchise that’s spent years generating headlines about spinoffs and sequels, it was a rare moment of two of its biggest stars talking about walking away from it instead.
For more on how the franchise’s newer generation of stars is navigating life during an active Westeros production, Read more: Olivia Cooke and Ralph Davis’ Relationship Timeline covers how one House of the Dragon star’s personal life has played out in the public eye. And for more on the state of Jon Snow’s own potential return to the franchise, Read more: Jon Snow Spinoff’s Status breaks down where that long-rumored project currently stands.
Variety’s full Actors on Actors conversation goes deeper into both actors’ reflections on fame, sobriety, and their years on the show, and it’s worth reading in full here.
House of the Dragon Season 3 | Official Final Trailer | HBO Max
Frequently asked questions about Kit Harington and Peter Dinklage’s reunion
When did Kit Harington and Peter Dinklage last see each other before this reunion? The two hadn’t spoken publicly together since Game of Thrones concluded on HBO in 2019, making their Variety Actors on Actors conversation their first real reunion in seven years.
Did Kit Harington go to rehab after Game of Thrones ended? Yes. Harington told Dinklage he checked into rehab for six weeks as the show’s final season was airing, meaning he never watched the finale live.
How many Emmys did Peter Dinklage win for Game of Thrones? Peter Dinklage won three Primetime Emmy Awards for his role as Tyrion Lannister, though some more recent reporting has cited a fourth win as his campaign continued.
What are Kit Harington and Peter Dinklage working on now? Kit Harington is a series regular on HBO’s Industry, while Peter Dinklage recently guest-starred on FX’s The Lowdown.
What did Kit Harington say about his first-ever scene in Game of Thrones? Harington said his very first scene on camera was with Dinklage, and that he focused entirely on staying as physically still as possible to get the shot right.
