Filming/Fun/News

Emilia Clarke reveals radical new look! Is Daenerys getting a makeover in Season 8?

Posted on by Vanessa Kennedy

Daenerys Beyond the Wall

A natural brunette, Emilia Clarke is no stranger to being blonde – after all, she has portrayed the silver-haired Daenerys Targaryen on Game of Thrones for the past seven years. Thankfully, Clarke has been fortunate to have had better wigs over the course of the show than some of her cast mates (looking at you Sophie Turner); her beautifully braided season seven hair was particularly stylish. That wig may be a thing of the past, however, as Clarke appears to have made a drastic change to her appearance today!

In a new picture posted to her Instagram account, Clarke unveils a brand-new platinum ‘do. She thanks Thrones hairstylists and “khaleesi wig” creators Kev Alexander and Candice Banks for the transformation and includes the hashtags #khaleesikicksoff, #gameofthrones, and #cominghomeneverfeltsogood.

What does this mean? Is Clarke just embracing her inner Khaleesi for fun? It appears from her post that this change was done specifically for Game of Thrones, but why now?

Perhaps Daenerys will be getting a haircut a la Cersei Lannister and opted to avoid the dreaded pixie wig? Or maybe Dany will see significant action and/or dragon stunt flying in season eight, and using extensions might be more secure than worrying about her wig taking flight? Whatever the reason, we have well over a year to speculate about it.

Welcome to #HairWatch Emilia.

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Vanessa Kennedy

60 Comments

  2. Man, I hope not. Wig or not a wig, I prefer long hair over short nearly all of the time, with very few exceptions.

  8. Don’t the Dothraki cut their hair after a loss of battle. She’s wearing her wins with her braids. Maybe she suffers a terrible loss and cuts her hair off

  10. I have a feeling that Dany will walk out of massive flames in the last season and that everyone will bow down…even the army of the dead. 🙂 This time, perhaps, most of her hair will be gone.

  11. Every single time Emilia posts a picture of herself flashing her million-watt smile and signs it with a goofy hashtag, it brightens my day. Beautiful lady! 🙂

    I could see Emilia going sans wig and relying on her newly-blonde hair if Dany were to cut her hair short in the final season (if not, she’ll probably need extensions). I’ll leave any discussion of the specific logistics and benefits/drawbacks of Dany’s potential hairstyle to others, as seven seasons of watching this show has taught me that I’m completely blind to such things, and mostly indifferent as well (I have never had the issues with certain characters’ wigs that others have). Narratively, however, I think it would be kind of cool if Dany were to have shorter hair in the final season, as it would draw yet another visual parallel between her and Cersei. She’ll also presumably be spending a lot of time doing battle on the back of her dragon, so adopting a less-ornate, more-utilitarian style could make sense. Either way, she’ll look lovely. One hopes that Jon agrees 😉

  12. Anon: I have a feeling that Dany will walk out of massive flames in the last season

    I’m still wondering if there will be a scene when Jon does that as definite proof that he is part Targaryen. Yeah, he burned his hand in S1 but perhaps the dragon hadn’t awoken yet…

  14. I highly doubt they will be use hair extensions. Isn’t Emilia’s hair too short and too thin to support the sort of elaborate hairdos that Dany usually sports? I don’t see how that’s feasible, and Dany desiring a haircut at this point seems equally odd to me. I think it’s more likely that she’s dyed her hair for sentimental reasons, as this is the final time she will be playing Dany.

  16. It’s her last year as Dany, I think this is her way of marking it. Just like she got the bee tattoo on her finger to commemorate her time on ‘Me Before You’. She’ll be saying goodbye to Dany, this seems to be a fitting way to do it.

  20. Emilia hair dyes her hair blond as a tribute to Daenerys, the character that changed her career.

    Now imagine if Alfie Allen, Conleth Hill and Jakob Andersen decided to do something similar and cut their…WAIT !

  21. She’s always so darn cute. I draw no conclusions nor am I getting worked up over a haircut/dye. LOL. 😊🐲

  22. Has to be something sentimental because is the final season, after her bee tattoo she said that she wants a dragon tattoo… now I want to see that dragon tatoo.

    The combination between blond hair and dark eyebrow is old… the first time I saw it was Eminen in the early 00´s

  23. Mother of Birds:
    Now about those eyebrows…

    My thoughts exactly. Also, depending on how long she will be filming, she’s going to experience some regrowth issues. She will need frequent root touch-ups, especially as her hair is pulled back exposing her forehead in most of her styles.

  27. Carole H,

    Hi Carole, just remembered? Did you manage to stay unspoiled during your visit to the hairdressers when S7 was being shown? I recall you said the person there was a GoT fan and may had seen a leaked episode and you wished to remain unspoiled! I hope that was so 😉

    There’s nothing worst and I really hate leaks and spoilers!

  29. Come on folks, be realistic. She’s not dyeing her hair for sentimental reasons. Seriously- what would the point even be and what would that achieve exactly? 😂😂 🙄

  30. Must a woman’s significance always be reduced to her hair!? [Asks the woman who covers her white hair with a bandana whenever she can.]

  31. The most semsible thing said on this thread so far 😝

    Pigeon:
    She’s always so darn cute. I draw no conclusions nor am I getting worked up over a haircut/dye. LOL. 😊🐲

  32. Jared,

    “Every single time Emilia posts a picture of herself flashing her million-watt smile and signs it with a goofy hashtag, it brightens my day. Beautiful lady! 🙂”
    ——————–
    ———————

    If Emilia’s megawatt smile brightens your day, check out her new Dolce & Gabbana (“The One”) fragrance commercial. It shows her in a black spaghetti strap dress, dancing and eating spaghetti with locals on a street in Naples, Italy.

    I must’ve watched it twenty times already. Her laughter and goofiness are infectious.

  33. I hope they tone her hair because that looks brassy as all hell (though that could just be the filter). Just when I was getting excited to see silver-haired Dany again… If I had to guess, they’re ditching the lacefront wig for extensions for the last season. Something tells me we’re going to see a large portion of Dany’s scenes in season 8 on dragonback, and it just looks so much more realistic when her hair is blowing in the wind. That’s super hard to accomplish with wigs (see the 5×09 scene when she flies out on Drogon) but they improved in season 7 by tying it back.

    I wouldn’t be surprised if they do the same for Sansa and Cersei. Sophie’s hair is red at the moment anyways because of X-Men so I assumed she would keep it that way until filming wraps up. I hope the Sansa wig was burnt. However Emilia bleaching her hair makes me wonder if Lena will do the same. Cersei’s hair hasn’t grown an inch in two seasons and it would save them a ton of money to just dye Lena’s hair as opposed to investing in another wig for her.

  35. Her hair isn’t much shorter than the Bob she had for playing Keira in The Han Solo movie.

    She hasn’t cut it for the show. It’ll be a wig.

    Nope, she’s probably just arsing around and dying it for a laugh. It’s the wrong colour anyway.

  37. Ten Bears,

    I’ve seen it! It’s delightful, and Emilia was lovely as ever. I’m sure that her ever-present enthusiasm came through quite naturally there – it looked like a blast.

    I’ve seen Kit’s ad as well. One has to wonder if D&G is building up the campaign up towards an ad featuring the two of them together. They filmed the current ones before Season 7 aired, but given what unfolded with Jon and Dany, that seems like an opportunity that they’d want to take advantage of.

  41. So either Emilia cut & dyed her hair for GoT, it’s for the Han Solo movie, or perhaps for both? Since Dany is heading North, I can also see Emilia getting extensions and adopting some Northern-appropriate hairstyles and wardrobe… I also wonder if some of the hair stylists also worked on the Force Awakens (the other poster behind Emilia) since some of it was filmed in Dubrovnik/King’s Landing. Uugghh it’s like they’re taunting us because Han Solo is being filmed at Pinewood Studios near London and one of her hairdressers tagged a location: Tottenham. I guess we’ll find out eventually!

  42. Hmmm. I must disagree about the season 7 wig. I really didn’t like it. Too rigid, too elaborate, too impractical. I prefer when her hair looks softer. I decided that its rigidity was probably the point, as in it reflected her controlled attitude most of the season. Still, it’s only a hairstyle.

  43. Ashara D: There’s also a Star Wars poster behind her…

    So…are you suggesting Sandor Clegane is the Warrior of Light aka Azor Ahai, the Valanqar, AND the Last Jedi?

  44. Clob,
    Why do people want Jon to start showing off Dany’s special abilities? Being the Unburnt is one, and recently, I’ve seen people suggest they’ll be pissed off if they don’t see Jon training to ride Rhaegal on screen. What would be new in this training/bonding scene that we haven’t seen in Dany’s?

    Jon has his own things, Longclaw and the fact that he’s a fire zombie. Also Ghost in earlier seasons. Not enough for the Mary Sue golden boy?

  45. Black Raven,

    Hello there Black Raven. Despite his best efforts I did but I had to sit with my fingers in my ears singing lol And although there have been some negative comments about the episode I thoroughly enjoyed it. I think we should all remember that this fabulous programme is not going to last much longer and when it’s gone it’s gone and I’m booking into the Priory lol😭😭😭😭

  46. Jared,

    Me too and very nice it is too😍 Please God we don’t see a photo of Mr Harington with his hair cut or the website will go into meltdown 😞

  48. Priscila:
    Emilia hair dyes her hair blond as a tribute to Daenerys, the character that changed her career.

    Now imagine if Alfie Allen, Conleth Hill and Jakob Andersen decided to do something similar and cut their…WAIT !

    And what if Sophie seeks out a psychopath and lets herself get rap… WAIT! NOT SO FUNNY NOW.

  49. Carole H,

    Hi Carole, glad to know you got through your visit to the hairdressers – Unspoiled 😀

    I really enjoyed all episodes of S7 and no problems whatsoever. The finale was great with all the characters coming together in the Dragon Pit, Sansa with Arya’s ‘assistance’ finally removing Littlefinger and of course the NK bringing down the wall with Viserion – now a zombie dragon! It will been interesting to see how S8 pans out.

    Yes, a shame that S8 will be the last, but all good things sadly have to come to an end. Its incredible GoT has lasted so long, but I will miss it for sure when it concludes 🙁

  51. Black Raven,

    I wish I knew how the showrunners intend to tie up all story lines in six episodes. But then again, my greedy inner voice is shouting, “they need fifty more episodes!”

    For all its perceived flaws, this show has given us 77 hours of unprecedented quality TV. The practical and special effects have been better than anything I’ve seen in big budget Hollywood movies. And it’s going to be difficult to say goodbye to characters I feel I’ve grown up with over seven years.

    Finally, with the internet turning from an information superhighway into a fake news, slur-polluted cesspool over the past decade, this site has been an oasis of intelligence for many of us. I hope it outlives the conclusion of the show.

  55. Ten Bears,

    Yes, I agree with all your comments and know exactly how you feel. I too wonder how the story can be wound up in just 6 episodes. However, I believe some of those will be ‘movie length’ ~2 hours which I guess will be good.

    GoT has certainly set a high standard for a TV show and with its SFX, CGI, great filming locations, etc it will be hard to better. As you say, many Hollywood block buster movies don’t come up to the standard GoT has attained.

    As for the internet becoming a cesspool over the last decade or so, I couldn’t agree more. Full of crap and sadly inhabited with a lot of ‘low life’ and lacking intelligence between the ears 🙁

    However, it looks like there will be prequels to GoT, so I would hope WotW continues to exist for the foreseeable future.

  56. Dee Stark,

    Thanks for that selfie of newly blonde Emilia!
    Don’t you just love her photo captions and hashtags? In the photo you linked, she wrote:

    “emilia_clarke. The experiment continues. My IQ has stayed around average and my need to be near fire breathing creatures and uncomfortable seats made of iron has trebled.
    #hereslookingatyoukid
    #canyoutellthiswasshotonaniphone?
    #apparentlyblondestakemoreselfies 💃”

  58. Black Raven:
    Ten Bears,

    Yes, I agree with all your comments and know exactly how you feel.I too wonder how the story can be wound up in just 6 episodes.However, I believe some of those will be ‘movie length’ ~2 hours which I guess will be good.

    GoT has certainly set a high standard for a TV show and with its SFX, CGI, great filming locations, etc it will be hard to better. As you say, many Hollywood block buster movies don’t come up to the standard GoT has attained.

    As for the internet becoming a cesspool over the last decade or so, I couldn’t agree more. Full of crap and sadly inhabited with a lot of ‘low life’ and lacking intelligence between the ears

    However, it looks like there will be prequels to GoT, so I would hope WotW continues to exist for the foreseeable future.

    Agree, can certainly see the last couple of episodes being 90 minutes each with next season 7-8 hours in total.

  59. I love the theory that she cuts her hair like Khal Drogo would have, after she loses a battle.

    But she didn’t do that after losing several battles in Westeros in Season 7.

    I think the only thing that would drive her to chop off her hair is when she sees Viserion again and realizes where her actions have led. She’s almost lost them the war by allowing the Night King to get a dragon.

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