The Impact of Emma D'Arcy

The conclusion of Game of Thrones did not go the way that long time viewers had hoped for. The dedicated fans were left with a confusing and lackluster ending for a show that was once one of the best on television. It took some time for fans to recover from this great disappointment (though many still refuse to talk about the last season or two) before a new Game of Thrones show was on the horizon. This was a prequel, set 172 years before Daenerys Targaryen was born, called House of the Dragon. This new addition to the Game of Thrones television realm needed some strong talent in order for the show to be a success. Casting director, Kate Rhodes James, showrunner and executive producer, Ryan J. Condal, and director, Miguel Sapochnik, began a global search for a new star, and in December 2020 they announced that they had found their Rhaenyra Targaryen in non-binary actor Emma D'Arcy.

Emma D'Arcy is a non-binary English actor, who at the time of the casting was known for the BBC drama Wanderlust, the Amazon Prime series Truth Seekers, as well as various astounding theatre performances. D'Arcy had not even seen Game of Thrones when they landed the role of Rhaenyra and Condal’s description of Rhaenyra as House of the Dragon’s “most important character” placed immense pressure on them. The fans of George R.R. Martin’s book had mixed reactions to the casting announcement and waited eagerly for the first episode to premiere.

Soon afterwards, Miguel Sapochnik declared D'Arcy as “the face of the show” as D'Arcy’s performance as Rhaenyra Targaryen was an immediate success and critics rated their performance as one of the best of the year. As Marcus Jones of IndieWire writes, “transcending the dialogue, D'Arcy makes use of their mesmerizing gaze to capture Rhaenyra’s warmth as a protective mother, her cunning as she creates the life she wants with Prince Daemon out of the ashes of their tragic first marriages, and her melancholy at the state of the [world].” D'Arcy received many accolades for their performance, including: TV Line’s Biggest Acting Revelation 2022, being named as one of GQ’s breakout stars of the year, and being nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress - Television Series Drama.

Rhaenyra herself is an incredibly complex character, but D'Arcy uses their theatre background and their experience with gender identity to gain a deeper understanding of her. D'Arcy sees Rhaenyra as someone who is “pushing at the edges of womanhood” and is “obsessed with masculinity” as “a person who feels at odds with the way that she is read by the world - even this label the Realm’s Delight, which implies a passivity, being an object of people’s ogling.” In a way, D'Arcy faces this same ogling as they are often misgendered for taking this and other female roles. However, they say that they “really like playing women” and that their “worst-case scenario is that suddenly people tell [them] what [they] can and can’t play. [They] have all the tools necessary to play women. [they] lived as one for a long time” and they just wish for people to let them continue to perform.

Since the show’s premiere, Emma D'Arcy continues to shine. In 2022, D'Arcy singlehandedly made the Negroni Sbagliato rise in demand due to a hilarious interview with their House of the Dragon costar, Olivia Cooke. In 2023, D'Arcy placed fifth on the Radio Times list of the top 100 most influential people in television, and was on The Huffington Post’s list of rising stars. In 2024, D'Arcy was named as one of the “30 Performers Defining Culture Now” by InStyle. And this past year, D'Arcy was once again nominated for Best Actress - Television Series Drama at the Golden Globes as well as being nominated for Best Actress in a Television Series at the Saturn Awards and Best Performer In A Play at the WhatsOnStage Awards for their role as Annie in The Other Place.

As one the leading actors of House of the Dragon, a show with strong viewership figures (8.9 million views of the season 2 finale, the biggest streaming day ever for Max), Emma D'Arcy has brought non-binary people into the public eye. As D'Arcy says “the only good reason for being out as a non-binary person, publicly and professionally, is that I hope it will let younger people who may feel similar know that there is room in this industry for them. Because there was definitely a point where I thought, ‘Oh no, this is not going to work. I definitely need to have long hair and make-up to do this job.’ And that’s just not true.”

In April 2025, Emma D'Arcy, along with hundreds of other U.K. celebs, including Bella Ramsey, Eddie Redmayne, and Nicola Coughlan signed an open letter condemning the U.K. supreme court’s ruling on barring trans people from entering single-sex facilities on film sets, studios, and in theatres. D'Arcy remains optimistic despite this ruling, stating that their “hope is that the more trans people and gender-non-conforming people who are visible in this industry, the more hopeful young people in the community will feel about the opportunities available to them.” The final decisions on what this ruling may look like is still up in the air, but having major film and television stars with non-binary identities, like Emma D'Arcy, will hopefully encourage a positive change in the near future.

Emma D'Arcy is a beacon for non-binary talent. They have proved that you do not have to conform in this industry in order to succeed. There is absolutely space for more non-binary talent to take their place in Hollywood and the space is only growing wider. With a non-binary lead, House of the Dragon has become a series that challenges traditional gender expression and reimagines identity. Despite some of the problems that those beyond the binary face, Emma D’Arcy’s impact is a major step in the right direction.