Emilia Clarke Leaves The Throne Behind To Pick Up A Gu*n: Everything You Need To Know About MALLORY — The Most Shocking Role Of The GAME OF THRONES Star In CRIMINAL

If you thought EMILIA CLARKE would play it safe after GAME OF THRONES — soft roles, romantic leads, nothing too risky — you were completely wrong.

In 2026, the British actress is attacking on every front at once: honored at Variety’s Power of Women London, premiering a jazz film at Tribeca, and now preparing to land on Prime Video with a role nobody saw coming — MALLORY, an armed robber at the center of the shocking crime series CRIMINAL.

Who Is Mallory?

According to the official character description, Mallory is “a slick and daring armed robber, as quick with a gun as she is with her wits.” She’s one half of a bank-robbing duo alongside her lover Ricky Lawless — a relationship described as a passionate, modern-day BONNIE AND CLYDE affair. And like all the best crime stories, Mallory carries secrets that will drag her entire crew into the danger zone.

A Cast That Should Keep You Up At Night

Standing alongside Emilia in CRIMINAL are Charlie Hunnam (Sons of Anarchy), Richard Jenkins (Six Feet Under), Adria Arjona (Andor), and John Hawkes (Deadwood) — a lineup powerful enough to make any serious crime fan stop scrolling immediately.

Why This Is Emilia’s Most Important Role Yet

Look back at EMILIA CLARKE’s post-GAME OF THRONES track record: Secret Invasion (Marvel) — didn’t land. Solo: A Star Wars Story — didn’t land. Terminator Genisys — landed even harder in the wrong direction. She acknowledged all of it herself, openly and without filters, in her Variety interview this week.

But then came PONIES — the Cold War spy thriller on Peacock she executive-produced in 2026 — sitting at 97% on Rotten Tomatoes. And now comes CRIMINAL, where she is no longer a queen, no longer a hero, no longer anyone’s savior. She is something far more interesting: a seductive, dangerous woman living entirely outside the law.

The series is built as an interlocking universe of crime stories — an intergenerational story of families connected through shared criminal history — across 8 episodes on Prime Video.

This isn’t a comeback. This is an entirely different EMILIA CLARKE.

And if Mallory carries even a fraction of the magnetic pull that Daenerys had — with a gun where the dragon used to be — then CRIMINAL will be the unmissable series of 2026.

The Mother of Dragons is gone.

The woman who replaced her is far more dangerous. 🔫