HBO; Peacock
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Emilia Clarke has returned to TV with Peacock's new spy thriller, PONIES, which sees her star alongside Haley Lu Richardson as widows who become Soviet Union CIA operatives after their husbands are mysteriously killed
Clarke, 39, tells PEOPLE why the series was the perfect way for her to return to TV seven years after her time as Daenerys Targaryen on Game of Thrones came to an end
PONIES is now streaming on Peacock
Emilia Clarkeis back on TV.
The actress, 39, stars alongsideHaley Lu Richardsonin Peacock'sPONIES, a spy thriller that follows two widows, Bea (Clarke) and Twila (Richardson), who convince the CIA to let them be operatives in Soviet Union-era Moscow after their husbands are mysteriously killed.
At the show's New York City premiere on Wednesday, Jan. 14, Clarke reflected on why the series marked the perfect way for her to return to the small screen nearly seven years afterGame of Thronesended.
"This was meant to be," she tells PEOPLE of the role, explaining that it was the magic of the show that drew her back to TV.
Katalin Vermes/PEACOCK
"It was definitely like, 'Okay, Emilia, think about this. Are we ready to dive back into this?' But the script was undeniable," she says, calling out the creative team behind the show in particular: creators David Iserson and Susanna Fogel, as well as executive producer Jessica [Rhoades]. "I loved them. I loved them from the first moment [we met]."
"And then getting to build the cast out and having Haley be my sister and my partner in crime, yeah, this was meant to be," Clarke says.
She and Richardson, 30, clicked immediately when they met over Zoom. "It's just been easy-peasy from day one," Clarke tells PEOPLE.
Both actresses are aware of how special their bond is. "Even when you love someone you're working with, it's very rare that, after the job is done and the bubble's popped, that you're friends," Richardson told PEOPLE. "It's rare."
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Clarke spent a decade starring onGame of Thronesas Daenerys Targaryen, and since the hugely successful series came to an end in 2019, she's been candid about how difficult it's been to process the phenomenon the show became.
"The more distance I have fromGame of Thrones, the more I can quantify it," she told PEOPLE in 2024. "When I started, you don't know what you're doing, you don't know what you're surrounded by and you don't know what you're taking part in."
"Now, as more and more time goes between it and me doing it, the more I'm like — that was incredibly special and that was incredibly rare."
Helen Sloan/courtesy of HBO
"I was just incredibly, incredibly lucky to have had that experience," she says of starring in the series based on George R. R. Martin's bestselling books.
It was "lightning in a bottle," and she said it "means the world" that fans remain so dedicated to it.
PONIESis now streaming on Peacock
Read the original article onPeople
