Featured Image Credit: Netflix / HBO
Topics: Game of Thrones, Celebrity, TV and Film, Netflix
Michael Slavin
Topics: Game of Thrones, Celebrity, TV and Film, Netflix
There’s nothing that will throw you more than sticking on a new film and suddenly spotting an actor you haven’t seen for a decade.
You’re sat, ready for a fun time – and bam – Brendan Fraser is back in The Whale, Ke Huy Quan is in Everything, Everywhere, All at Once.
And fans have experienced the same thing in the newest Netflix number 1 – with a Game of Thrones actor returning to the big screen after a full 10 years off our screens.
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A whole host of actor's careers were changed upon starring GOT, such as Pedro Pascal, Sophie Turner, and Emilia Clarke, and the damp squib that was the final season led to actors such as Kit Harrington to take a step back.
The actor in question though played, arguably, the most hated TV character of all time.
And that was Joffrey Baratheon, who was played by Irish actor Jack Gleeson in the fantasy series.
He was in barely anything prior to Game of Thrones, with his only roles being in minor projects or as the weird little kid saved by Batman in Batman Begins.
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In his 27-episode run on GOT, however, Gleeson solidified himself as an incredible actor by creating one of the easiest to hate little s**ts possible.
After his character met his gruesome end in The Purple Wedding, Gleeson said to Entertainment Weekly in 2014 that he'd 'stopped enjoying it as much as I used to' and that it's not that he 'hated it', but it wasn't what he wanted to do.
And just as quickly as he appeared, he left the acting industry – starring in nothing for the next decade.
Bar a couple of one-to-two-episode appearances in shows, and a small role in an indie film, he disappeared from the big screen - until now that is.
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Gleeson stars in 2023's In the Land of Saints and Sinners, alongside an all-star Irish cast of Liam Neeson, Ciarán Hinds, and Kerry Condon.
Check out the trailer here:
Fans are just now finding it out after sticking the film on - which is currently number one on Netflix right now - and are being absolutely shocked.
One person posted on X (formerly known as Twitter), to say:
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“Jack Gleeson came back to acting?! Just been watching In the Land of Saints and Sinners and screamed to myself THATS JOFFREY F*CKIN' BARATHEON!”
In a trailer posted on the subreddit r/ireland, several commenters also noticed the inclusion of Gleeson.
One commented “Jack Gleeson unretired?”, with another adding: “He’s really good in it!”
After doing a brilliant job in GOT, it’s reassuring to see him appear in another film – and by all accounts, smash it out the park.
In the Lands of Saints and Sinners is available to watch on Netflix in the UK and Ireland now.