AS FAR AS stars go, Kit Harington is in pretty rarified air. In many ways, Game of Thrones was one of the last pieces of monoculture; the HBO fantasy smash was one of the final shows that it felt like truly everyone watched, and he played one of the most important characters in its entire run. Despite most people not knowing his work before hand, and only working on a handful of things after, the run as Jon Snow really bought Harington a very special bit of real estate—and now, as he stars in the third season of HBO’s Industry, he’s cashing it in.
In the years since playing Jon Snow, Harington has stayed relatively quiet. His post-Westeros work has been limited to smaller profile films and a small role in Eternals (which promised an MCU future that has yet to be realized). But with Industry, he’s stepping up front and center, taking his place once again as the key game-shaker in a piece of HBO’s crown jewel programming.
Harington plays Sir Henry Muck in Industry, the founder and CEO of Lumi, a green energy company getting ready to launch its first IPO (Initial Public Offering). Henry is manager by Robert (Harry Lawtey), but given how massive a moment this is for Pierpoint and Co., the London-based investment bank that the show revolves around, almost everyone at the firm is getting involved, from the top-level executives to newly-hired graduates. The business is revolving around Henry and Lumi, because it seems like the money coming in could be absolutely massive.
When a property like that is set up, you need a strong character to lead it—and Industry proved it’s game to do just that. Just in the first episode alone, Muck is shown to be exactly the kind of character that the show proved to be so good at building with Jay Duplass’s Jesse Bloom in season 2; someone charming enough so audiences understand why people are drawn to them, but cunning and eccentric enough to know that we’re going to be on a roller coaster ride for as long as we’re watching.
As Henry is preparing for Lumi’s IPO, typical problems—we’re watching a show, after all—begin to arise; investors back out, prices shift, the works. But Harington’s performance does something unique in that he doesn’t really explode (he keeps most of that for behind his eyes): he keeps a level head, smiles, and nods. As Henry, Harington gets to use all the charm that had to be taken off the table when playing the stoic Jon Snow.
But like so many others in Industry, he also likes to play head games. After a phone call that Yasmin (Marisa Abela) was on ended disastrously, Henry somehow got her personal phone number and gave her a call later. Now, this should be a bit inappropriate and strange (why is he calling her?), but Yasmin is having such a tough time—she’s being harassed by the paparazzi and tabloid media after her father, a famous rich guy who has recently been exposed as a sex pest, went into hiding—that anyone who’s nice to her feels like kind of a change of pace.
And when it’s someone who’s Yasmin’s type (rich, handsome), we can predict sparks may start to fly. He invites her to come see him for a conversation later that night, and while she expresses some annoyance—complaining to Robert (Harry Lawtey) about giving away her number, which Henry says is how he got it, despite Rob’s later denial—she nonetheless attends, and we instantly see what’s happening.
Yasmin arrives where Henry sends her, and finds not people having drinks, or dinner, or any kind of business meeting, but rather a bunch of men playing handball; Henry is shirtless and wearing athletic shorts. Harington clearly has worked hard for his physique, and based on the way he’s shot, we be certain that his impressive results are a secret to exactly no one in that room.
We don’t know the angle yet, but clearly he’s set Yasmin up to be in this situation; and after he introduces her and the other men with him (who are also big business players, and who know Yasmin’s disgraced father) scoff a bit, he offers some sympathy. “I know what it’s like having a family member ruin your life, so I know what you’re going through,” he tells her. “The kids are always collateral.”
Again, telling her this with his shirt off. He’s appealing to her on an emotional level, but it’s hard to ignore the attractive, charming, and (seemingly) kind man right in front of her.
It’s not hard to figure out why Harington has laid low since Thrones; he made his name as a noble hero, fighting White Walkers and attempting to preserve the good of the realm in a fantasy epic (and, outside of work, he’s also expressed issues with the mental health anguishes that come along with the industry and roles like the one he played in Thrones). That can be awesome, but it doesn’t give an actor a full chance to show the range of who they can be, and what they can do.
In the tremendously funny 2015 HBO film 7 Days in Hell, Harington gets to show off his comedy chops as a tennis star who rarely has a single thought in his head. Even his role in Eternals put him in different shoes; rather than be the hero who comes in to save the day, he’s just a professor and a guy (though, eventually, his character will have to deal with some troubling family history on his way to becoming an anti-hero).
Industry, in the early goings, is giving him the opportunity to prove all of this. Can he be a realistic figure in an intense, hyper-active world? Sure seems like it. Can he use put both his charm and physical prowess on display in service of his character? Yeah, we’re going to give him that one too.
We don’t know where Henry’s role—and Harington’s performance—will go from here, but any questions as to how he’s going to fit into this new world, and what he stands to provide, have been completely answered. And we’re thrilled to keep watching.
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