In May 2019, Game of Thrones came to an end after eight seasons and 10 years on television. Although the show’s final season meant series stars Emilia Clarke and Kit Harington had to say goodbye to Daenerys Targaryen and Jon Snow, some Thrones actors said goodbye to their characters long before the final episode.
One of them was Natalie Dormer, the British-born beauty who played the scheming and intelligent Margaery of House Tyrell from season two until her character met an untimely end during season six. After a literally short-lived marriage to Renly Baratheon (Gethin Anthony), Margaery set her sights even higher: Renly’s nephew and King of the Seven Kingdoms, Joffrey Baratheon (Jack Gleeson).
However, she gets more than she bargained for with Joffrey, a sadistic product of Lannister bloodline. But when she too meets an untimely death at her wedding, Margaery ends up married to Joffrey’s younger brother and the next king, Tommen (Dean Charles Chapman). Lannister matriarch Cersei (Lena Headey) isn’t exactly thrilled with Margaery’s calculations, so she concocts a plan to get rid of Tyrell’s heirs once and for all.
While Margaery’s abrupt end may have surprised Game of Thrones fans, Natalie Dormer was in on the secret for quite some time, as she was the one who originally requested to be released from her Game of Thrones responsibilities.
After the season 6 finale, the actress revealed the story behind her exit. When asked when she received the infamous Thrones death phone call, Natalie Dormer detailed that she had asked showrunners David Benioff and DB Weiss to let her off the show “earlier than usual” so she could pursue another project. .
“I got ahead of the phone call because, in true Natalie Dormer fashion, I was trying to fit a million projects into a single year.”
Even during her Game of Thrones contract, the actress kept busy. She played Irene Adler on CBS’s Elementary, a role she originated during the first season and reprized during the second, and also appeared in the final two Hunger Games films as Cressida, a role that required her to shave part of her head. . After she finished Game of Thrones, Natalie Dormer continued to work steadily, appearing in shows and movies, no one doubted that she would return to work after her amazing role in the HBO series.
