Kit Harington Reveals Doing 'Gunpowder' Because He's Related to Robert Catesby
"Game of Thrones" star Kit Harington has another series premiering this fall. "Gunpowder," which will air on BBC on Oct. 21, is based on real-life events in British history.
Harington revealed that he chose to star and produce the show because it's about his ancestor Robert Catesby. He was one of the men behind the Gunpowder Plot of 1605 or the attempted assassination of Protestant ruler King James I of England by Catholics.
"My middle name is Catesby and it's something I was proud of," Harington said. "It's a part of my family history."
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Catesby and his group might be labeled as terrorists today. Some of modern times' anarchists, such as the hacker group Anonymous, actually draw inspiration from the Gunpowder Plot and Catesby's more famous companion, Guy Fawkes.
"You may know the name Guy Fawkes - as it has been attached to all sorts of things, from Occupying Wall Street to 'V for Vendetta' - but many won't know the whole story," Harington explained. "Gunpowder is all about choices, and the reasons desperate men make such choices, and it makes for really great drama."
Over centuries, history books showed that the Gunpowder Plot was a resistance to the oppression of the Catholics in the 1600s. Back then, the faithful and priests were hunted down and killed because they won't renounce their religion.
Harington wondered why Catesby's story has not been done on-screen when he's the mastermind of the Gunpowder Plot. So, he decided to team up with executive producer Ollie Madden to develop the series.
He also said he wanted to portray someone who's the opposite of his famous character Jon Snow, who represented pure goodness on "Game of Thrones." Catesby did bad things but as to why he was driven to do so will be expounded in the series.
Joining Harington in "Gunpowder" are Liv Tyler (Ann Vaux), Mark Gatiss (Robert Cecil), Peter Mullan (Henry Garnet) and Tom Cullen (Guy Fawkes). The three-episode drama will premiere on Saturday, Oct. 21, at 9:00 p.m. EST on BBC. The episodes will also stream on iPlayer.