The King in the North has returned.
Today, Zynga is rolling out the global launch of its new mobile game, Game of Thrones: Legends—complete with Kit Harington channeling his role as Jon Snow in the marketing campaign. This is the first time Harington has returned to the world of Game of Thrones since the series ended in 2019.
Gabrielle Heyman, vp of global brand sales and partnership at Zynga, said the company was excited to get Harington on board.
“This is the first time Kit has come back into the Game of Thrones universe since the show left the air, so we were honored that he wanted to participate with us,” Heyman told ADWEEK. “He was like, ‘This is about the fans. This is doing it for the fans.’ So it was a great fit.”
The new mobile RPG puzzle game, which is licensed by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment on behalf of HBO, incorporates content and characters from the network’s Game of Thrones and House of the Dragon series.
In the trailer for the mobile game, which is set in London, Harington is immersed in the game and stirring up Westeros-based fantasies while walking through a dimly-lit lounge before getting snapped back into reality for a silly interaction with a fan.
For the trailer, Heyman said their team wanted to balance a tongue-in-cheek, lighthearted tone while still keeping a sense of an underlying mystery, which is prevalent throughout the franchise. She added that Harington was collaborative when it came to what he was comfortable doing or what felt authentic to the character.
“He walks into this bar wondering if what he just saw was a mirage or if it was real—like the necklace on a woman who enters, which are the icons from the game that morphs back into a real necklace,” Heyman said. “He’s seeing all these strange things as he walks in and sits at the bar and engages with fans who tease him about tropes from the show.”
In Game of Thrones: Legends, players can build and lead their own personalized Westeros houses and assemble their teams with characters like Jon Snow, Rhaenyra Targaryen and Arya Stark. They can also complete missions to claim the Iron Throne, showcase their skills in RPG puzzle battles and pair up different characters to defeat different game modes and enemies.
Heyman said that Zynga, which has a long history of partnering with Warner Bros. Discovery on many games for franchises such as Wizard of Oz, Wonka and Harry Potter, said she hopes casual fans of the franchise will get into the game.
