Daario Naharis Recast

[FCOS]

Good, I didn't think the old actor portrayed Daario very well.

[Masha]

While I hate recastings - this needed to be done. I was so disappointed with Daario casting - especially till then (other than Mountain and that was hard because of his sheer impossible size) AGOT was so good at matching my character expectations.

As I was reading GRRM books I imagined Daario to be more like Jack Sparrow (from Pirates of the Caribbean) - aka charming rogue only without conscience.

I didn't know the actor - Ed Skrein, didn't know he was a singer and at my first viewing of him in AGOT episodes my first thought was - is that a Boy-Band member with bad accent and fake bravado?

I saw Xtreme and at least in there Michiel Huisman was more in line to my expectations of Daario.

[Rhogantis]

Although there is the change in appearence from how he is in the books to the show, i believe he made a great daario and i thought he was very well suited to it... he pulled it off great in my eyes. I do hate recasting in any case and in any show, i really do.... except say like when Andy Whitfield passed due to cancer in spartacus and it was recast with Liam Mclintyre, who did a good job but something was missing. Regardless of me hating recasts in general, i believe this is a bad decision whoever made it.... Skrein was a great match and made it his own.

[RedChick]

Although I think this guy may do a better job than the Fabio of last season it doesn't change problem of the constant recasting.

It would probably be jarring for TV viewers noticing different actors playing the same character; especially during a re-watch of the seasons (ugghhh *has flashbacks to soap operas and recasts*).

[Khal-a-bunga]

"Constant re-casting" is a bit of a misnomer. Let's take a look at all of the characters who have been re-cast:

Beric Dondarrion - Initial actor had one line, and maybe two seconds of screen-time.

The Mountain - Had one scene, and one line in the first season. Showed up briefly for a few scenes in the second season.

Tommen Baratheon - Brief appearances (though more substantial than any of the aforementioned) throughout the first two seasons, but he didn't appear at all during the third season. With the role requiring more than the original actor was likely capable of, this seems to be a good choice, and one that most viewers likely won't notice (beyond the fact that the actor looks older, as would have been the case with the original Tommen, anyway).

So that leaves Daario. Easily the biggest re-casting the show has done to date, and one that I'm fine with, considering I wasn't a huge fan of Ed Skrein. Michel Huisman is a fantastic actor (though, admittedly, I've only ever seen him on Treme), so on that front, this is an upgrade. In terms of consistency, it will be jarring at first (depending on how it's handled, especially), but by the end of next season the new Daario will have appeared in more episodes than the prior, and we'll be thinking of Huisman as the character, and Skrein as the inconsistent element.

[RedChick]

^^ A bit of exaggeration on my part but then again I'm a continuity nerd (like it's become a running gag for me in the constant re-casting of Bobby Draper in Mad Men).

[rivergirl]

Call me crazy, but i don't think the two actors even look that different- people who didn't fangirl over Hot!Daario might miss the switch entirely. This is, of course, assuming Huisman will take the Skrein wig.

Personally i found Hot!Daario weird and distracting from the beginning, purely because he looks nothing like Book Daario, so at this point nothing about his TV portrayal can phase me. Does anyone have any idea why they decided to make him attractive and not blue-haired?

[That Demon Monkey]

Call me crazy, but i don't think the two actors even look that different- people who didn't fangirl over Hot!Daario might miss the switch entirely. This is, of course, assuming Huisman will take the Skrein wig.

Personally i found Hot!Daario weird and distracting from the beginning, purely because he looks nothing like Book Daario, so at this point nothing about his TV portrayal can phase me. Does anyone have any idea why they decided to make him attractive and not blue-haired?

Reading about someone with blue hair is one thing, but I think actually seeing a grown man in that getup would just look ridiculous.

[Le Cygne]

Personally i found Hot!Daario weird and distracting from the beginning, purely because he looks nothing like Book Daario, so at this point nothing about his TV portrayal can phase me. Does anyone have any idea why they decided to make him attractive and not blue-haired?

Because he's attractive in the books. Dany calls him "beautiful" - he's supposed to be very attractive. That the blue hair and gold tooth got in the way of some readers thinking so, is a good reason for ditching those things on the show.

[rivergirl]

Come to think of it, you're both right- i forgot he actually is meant to be attractive, just with the blue hair and gold tooth included. I guess this provided an opportunity for GRRM to reinforce his image of Daario, rather than what most readers saw him as.*

And That Demon Monkey, it's definitely true that it would be too weird for most people to see him with blue hair. And like you said, Le Cygne, it does make sense for them to ditch them if it would change the viewers' opinion on him. I guess it's one of those things where those (me included) who are sticklers for book accuracy just have to suck it up for the sake of ratings and show-only fans.

*On a side note, do you think this means he'll make Darkstar more likeable on-screen? He's said somewhere that he wasn't expecting us all to think he was such a douche, and that he hadn't anticipated the "i am of the night" line going down so badly. Maybe they'll cut that from the show and we'll end up with a whole lot of Darkstans on our hands!

[Le Cygne]

I want the show to be like the books, too. I loved season 1, and wish they'd done the rest of the series that way. I'm fine with adaptation changes that are not changes to important character moments/lines/stories/motivations. But I don't see blue hair and a gold tooth as very important in that respect. Attractive is the important thing to convey there.

Probably will see other changes like that!

I liked the old Daario, I think he had a "pretty" quality the new one doesn't have, but I always thought Daario would have, since he's a lady's man, not a macho dude.

[RhaenyraTargaryen]

I just hope Daario will be flamboyant!

[Arabella of Dorne]

I'm not sure about this... I saw it earlier and thought that was some mistake. But if it's true, I can only hope they make him look more like Daario in the books because that was the main argument against Ed Skrein in the first place. But I found him pretty good for the part, he had that cockish attitude and that was more important for me than his looks (even thought he is handsome as he should be).
The new cast does not give me that vibe... But maybe I'll be surprised.

[ladydewinter]

I liked Ed. At first I thought he is not what I imagined. Then he won me over and had an unconventional attractiveness that you get when someone with flaws becomes attractive because of their flaws.And he had the cockiness Dario is down pat. That smirk and that line "you have a suspicious mind my friend" had me. I hate recast I hope I can come to enjoy the new Dario if indeed this is so though I had herd this a while ago.

[Ilúvatar]

The new guy fits Daario much better in my opinion. I just hope they take this opportunity to make the character colourful and uniquely Tyroshi, instead of just another generic brown/grey ranger-type character.

It sounds petty, but in many ways I found Daario's costume last season far more disappointing than the actor who played him. While some deviations from the books in terms of character appearance really don't matter (like Tywin Lannister having hair instead of being bald), others do (like the Targaryen traits). The fondness of bright colours and the dying of hair is a distinct part of Tyroshi culture. Getting rid of that is a big step towards making the whole of Essos seem homogenized and generic.

[Inquisitor Glokta]

I just feel sad for the Unsullied...

The cast is already huge and without the background information of the books, many show-only viewers get very confused with the actors...

When talking to unsullied I usually have to jump through 5 hoops, until they know what character I'm talking about, because they can't remember all the names.

[BobbyAtomic]

What they should do is pull a George Lucas and go back and refilm all Daario's scenes with the new actor, stick them on the DVD and all subsequent screanings, problem solved, Ed who?

[Aizen 7]

I was fine with the actor playing Daario. I really don't see why a recast is necessary.

[The Dragon Prince]

At first I didn't really like Ed as Daario but by the end of the season I really started to like him and wanted to see more of him so this is going to be weird seeing another actor playing Daario next season

[Tyevve]

I have never read the books, so I can not say Ed Skrein did not portray Daario Naharis well. Seeing his acting without preconceived ideas of how Daario should be, I thought Ed did great as an odd and vain Braavosi. He acted well for what little opportunity he had.

And to those saying Gregor Clegane's original actor being replaced is easily forgotten simply do not care about the character. Conan Stevens captured what all the other characters described him as being perfectly. He was a loose cannon, showed plenty of reckless abandon, and was quite menacing in size and facially for his brief appearances. His first replacement, Ian Whyte, only ever seemed calm and collected. A major disappointment. Season four Gregor's face does not look as mean and crazy as Conan's, but he is a big guy. We can only wait and see the results. Conan's replacement was definitely noticeable to people who pay attention to details in the TV series, and so too will be Daario Naharis', particularly because he acted more than the first Gregor.