Harington transitioned from stage to screen with the lead role of Jon Snow in Game of Thrones, which he played for a total of 62 episodes over its eight seasons. Throughout Snow’s wild story arc filled with death, resurrection, and family troubles, the actor earned Emmy, Golden Globe, Critics’ Choice, and Screen Actors Guild Award nominations for his portrayal of the fan-favorite character.

Around the same time he landed his Game of Thrones role, Harington was cast as Vincent Smith in 2012’s Silent Hill: Revelation, a sequel to the 2006 film Silent Hill, based on the video game of the same name. His character is a classmate of the psychological horror film’s protagonist Heather Mason and a secret member of the Order who is sent to take her to the haunted, supernatural Silent Hill.

In 2014, Harington nabbed a starring role as a gladiator named Milo in the romance historical disaster film Pompeii. Based on the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 A.D. that destroyed the Roman Empire city, the film also stars Emily Browning and Kiefer Sutherland. While it received mixed reviews from critics, the film went on to gross a total of $117.8 million worldwide.

The actor joined an existing voice cast including America Ferrera, Jonah Hill, and Kristen Wiig for How to Train Your Dragon 2, which earned a Golden Globe award and an Oscar nomination. Harington played Eret, a dragon trapper who sells captured dragons to warlord and hunter Drago (voiced by Djimon Hounsou) in the 2014 film and its follow-up, 2019’s How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World. Together, the sequels grossed over a billion dollars worldwide.

This 2014 British drama is about a young woman named Vera Brittain (Alicia Vikander) who dropped out of Somerville College, Oxford, to become a World War I nurse in 1914. Based on the real-life Brittain’s memoir of the same name, Harington stars in Testament of Youth as soldier and poet Roland Leighton, aka her romantic companion. The film also features Rocketman’s Taron Egerton and Bridgerton’s Jonathan Bailey.

Harington and Vikander reunited for another 2014 film, Seventh Son, in which they star as William Bradley and Alice, respectively, alongside a cast that also features Jeff Bridges and Julianne Moore. Loosely based on the 2004 novel The Spook’s Apprentice by Joseph Delaney, the film tells the story of Thomas Ward (Ben Barnes), the seventh son of a seventh son, following his adventures as the apprentice of the Spook, aka a master fighter of supernatural evil.

In this 2015 HBO sports mockumentary, Harington stars as Charles Poole alongside Andy Samberg as Aaron Williams, two fictional tennis players who face off in what becomes the longest match in history. Inspired by the Isner-Mahut match at the 2010 Wimbledon Championships, the film is narrated by Jon Hamm and also stars Mary Steenburgen, Lena Dunham, Will Forte, Fred Armisen, and Howie Mandel, in addition to cameos from David Copperfield, Soledad O’Brien, and Serena Williams.

A sequel to the 2002-2011 BBC series Spooks, Harington starred in the 2015 British spy film Spooks: The Greater Good. He played former MI5 officer Will Holloway, an estranged acquaintance of lead character Harry Pearce (Peter Firth), head of the MI5 counterterrorism department. Aside from new additions Harington and actor Jennifer Ehle, the rest of the film’s main cast reprised their roles from the original series.

This 2016 Western film tells the story of a frontier woman running from law enforcement and a vengeful preacher after she’s been wrongfully accused of a crime. Dakota Fanning starred as fugitive Liz, and Harington played Samuel, one of the last survivors in a deadly dispute over gold who finds himself in a battle with The Reverend (Guy Pearce).

Harington co-developed, co-produced, and starred as Robert Catesby in BBC and HBO’s three-part 2017 historical drama miniseries Gunpowder. Based on the Gunpowder Plot in 1605 London, the actor played the real-life leader of the English Catholics who planned to attack King James I and Parliament in an effort to replace the Protestant government — and who he happens to be a direct descendant of.

Featuring a star-studded cast of Natalie Portman, Jacob Tremblay, Susan Sarandon, and Kathy Bates, this 2019 Canadian drama film stars Harington in its titular role. Covering themes of celebrity, tabloid culture, mother-son relationships, and homosexuality, the movie follows a child actor (Tremblay) who exchanged letters with a troubled established actor (Harington) through his unfortunate death.