The 10 Best Emilia Clarke Movies & TV Shows, Ranked

I think I’m safe in assuming that Genisys is nobody’s idea of a great Terminator movie, which is a shame, as Alan Taylor’s 2015 reimagining features Emilia Clarke as a young Sarah Conner, the great Jason Clarke as John (her son from the future), Squid Game’s Lee Byung-hun as a new T-1000, and Arnie as—well, that one goes without saying.

Pitched as a direct sequel to T2: Judgement Day—in an effort to airbrush out the jumbled lore of Rise of the Machines and Salvation—the movie was set to be a back-to-basics franchise reboot, but despite some decent numbers at the box office, it failed to connect with critics and audiences. If you’re a big fan of those actors, however, you might still have some fun with it.

Despite popping up in some of the biggest franchises, Clarke has arguably been a bit unlucky with the IP roles that have come her way over the years. Similar to Genisys, the 2023 MCU show Secret Invasion arrived at an inopportune time in the franchise’s history—i.e., just around the point when the MCU’s overarching narrative started to go a bit slack as superhero fatigue set in.

Regardless, Clarke’s portrayal of G’iah, a radical refugee Skrull and the daughter of Ben Mendelsohn's Talos, wasn’t at fault for the show’s lukewarm reception. Check this one out for her performance, as well as some nice work from Olivia Coleman (The Favourite) and Kingsley Ben-Adir (Bob Marley: One Love).

One of Clarke’s first post-breakout roles came opposite Jude Law in Dom Hemingway. The movie, in which Law stars as a safe-cracker who’s just been released from prison, didn’t make much of a splash upon release, but if you’re looking for a solid three-star crime comedy with some Guy Ritchie-style flair and a more than decent cast (Richard E. Grant and Kerry Condon also feature), it’s worth seeking out.

For the movie, Clarke plays Evelyn Hemingway, the estranged daughter of Law’s ex-con and perhaps the only person capable of getting him back on the straight and narrow. 

With nearly two decades in the industry under her belt, it’s surprising how few independent movies Clarke has appeared in over the years. The Pod Generation, a fertility-themed sci-fi that premiered in Sundance in 2023, is one of the few.

Directed by Sophie Barthes, the story focuses on a couple (played by Clarke and Chiwetel Ejiofor) looking to have a child who decide to try out a new company that manufactures artificial wombs. If you liked Barthes’ similarly speculative sci-fi breakout Cold Souls, or appreciate the more benevolent episodes of Black Mirror, this might be up your street. 

Shortly after GoT blew up, Clarke landed her first big screen role in Spike Island, a slightly cliched but mostly charming British coming-of-age film about a group of friends attempting to make their way to a legendary Stone Roses gig in 1990.

As that plot suggests, the movie is full of nostalgia for the Madchester era—so, if you’re a fan of shows like This is England but also have a soft spot for cheesy rom-coms, you’ll probably find yourself bopping along to it. 

We’re yet to get the full story about what happened during the production of Solo—a movie that was set to be directed by Phil Lord and Chris Miller (a duo who have yet to miss) before Ron Howard took the reins, mid-production. Whatever the case, I still think it was underappreciated.

Solo: A Star Wars Story stars the perfectly charismatic Alden Ehrenreich (Oppenheimer) as a younger version of everyone’s favourite intergalactic smuggler. Alongside him, Clarke plays Qi’ra, his love interest and childhood friend, with Woody Harrelson in the Obi-Wan/mentor role and Paul Bettany (WandaVision) as a genuinely formidable antagonist. What’s not to like?

Released in the slightly less considerate days of 2016, it’s fair to say that certain things about Me Before You haven’t aged the best. However, as a pure star vehicle for Clarke, the film was a significant hit.

Directed by Thea Sharrock and based on Jojo Moyes' best-selling weepy, the movie is a swooning romance in which Clarke plays the caretaker of a paraplegic man. If you’re fond of romantic tearjerkers like The Fault in Our Stars, this might be the one for you. 

There is currently an entire cottage industry seemingly devoted to making the next annually-rewatchable Christmas rom-com—or at least trying to. One of the more palatable efforts in recent years was 2019’s Last Christmas, in which Clarke plays a Christmas shop worker who falls for a handsome courier (played by Henry Golding) who isn’t exactly what he seems.

It would be wrong to give anything else away about the plot’s unexpected twists and turns, but we can say that the movie features Michelle “flip it around” Yeoh as Clarke’s boss, a cameo from Broadway legend Patti Lupone, and even Emma Thompson as the actress’ mum—whose mere presence in any X-mas movie is usually enough to loosen the tear ducts.

For all her talents, one genre we haven’t seen Clarke try too often is comedy. That could be about to change thanks to her new show, PONIES—a series set in Moscow during the late 1970s that offers a delightful mix of buddy comedy and Cold War espionage thrills. 

The story follows two secretaries (Clarke and Hailey Lu Richardson) at the American Embassy who are recruited to become CIA operatives after their husbands are killed. If you enjoyed Richardson’s performance in the second season of The White Lotus, you’ll love the chemistry between the two actors here. 

It might have burned itself to ash by the end, but there’s no denying the visceral thrills of the first 6 or 7 seasons of Game of Thrones or the cultural impact that the series had on the world. If, for some reason, you’ve yet to see it, imagine an R-rated Lord of the Rings and you’ll have some idea of what you’re in for. 

There’s also no denying that Daenerys Targaryen is still both Emilia Clarke’s best performance and her most influential role—for proof, just consider the fact that around 3500 babies were reportedly named after her character during the show’s initial run. Whether or not they’ve held onto those names is another matter entirely…