Fans are searching for more information about Archie Barnes after his recent appearance as Oscar Tully in HBO's House of the Dragon Season 2.
Featuring a massive cast of characters, House of the Dragon Season 2 continues with the epic Dance of the Dragons civil war under the Targaryen family's reign over Westeros.
Included in that cast is 18-year-old Archie Barnes from London, United Kingdom, who has made quite an impact on the story with only two episodes under his belt.
5 Things To Know about House of the Dragon's Archie Barnes
Archie Barnes' Mother Is Also an Actor
Acting runs in Barnes' family as his mother, Helena Calvert, also made a career on screen as a performer. According to her profile on IMDb, Calvert has nearly a dozen credits on her resume.
Some of her biggest appearances are in soap operas such as EastEnders and Crimetime. She also has credits in 17 episodes of the hit soap opera Emmerdale, most from 1996 and a few that premiered in 2019.
While his father, Olly Barnes, is not in the movie/TV business, he has a place in the entertainment industry near his wife and son. According to his LinkedIn page, he is a music industry entrepreneur and co-founded a company called Voisey, which helps start and build collaborations between singers and songwriters.
Ralph Fiennes Gave Archie the Best Advice After Filming The Dig
Barnes has five credits on his resume, including a small role in DC's hit 2022 movie The Batman. There, he played Don Mitchell Jr., the son of Gotham Mayor Don Mitchell Sr., alongside Robert Pattinson (Batman), Paul Dano (Riddler), Andy Serkis (Alfred), and more.
Another major credit comes in The Dig, where he played Robert Pretty. That film saw him work with more top-name talent, including Never Let Me Go's Carey Mulligan and Ralph Fiennes, who played Voldemort in five Harry Potter movies.
Speaking with Telegraph, Barnes reflected on his experience filming with Fiennes, remembering hearing the longtime acting legend tell him, "Oh Archie, you should definitely be an actor."
Although Barnes was nervous about meeting a star that big, he explained how Fiennes was "always in character" when they interacted on set:
"The entire time, even the first day I met him, he wasn’t Ralph Fiennes. He was Basil Brown. He was always in character. I don’t think I’ve really met the proper Ralph Fiennes. But I’ve really met Basil Brown."
Archie Was in an Olivier-Nominated Play
Archie Barnes has also seen plenty of success off the silver screen after being in the cast of the theater play Phaedra, which tells the story of a politician who shifts her focus to her personal life.
Dealing with ideas like lust and loneliness, this woman's actions could put her in danger of losing everything she's worked her whole life to build.
This show features Barnes as a character named Declan. It also received an Olivier Award nomination in 2023 thanks to Janet McTeer's performance as Helen.
House of the Dragon Is Archie's Biggest Role Yet
While Barnes has plenty of big credits on his resume, House of the Dragon gives the young star the biggest role of his career.
In this show, Barnes plays a supporting character named Lord Oscar Tully, the head of House Tully and Lord Paramount of the Riverlands, who is involved with the Dance of the Dragons.
Oscar's grandfather is Lord Grover Tully, who raised the new young Lord after his father died. He is also the heir to Riverrun.
While Oscar is Grover's grandson in the House of the Dragon series, he is introduced in George R.R. Martin's books as Grover's great-great-grandson.
Struggling with his confidence and being dismissed as a naive child, Oscar eventually meets with Daemon Targaryen instead of Grover, who is too ill to continue. As he learns more about how the world of Westeros operates, he hopes to become a great warrior.
Archie Wants To Be in a Spider-Man Movie
After starring in the Game of Thrones universe, Archie Barnes has the world of Marvel in his sights, wanting to be in a Spider-Man movie someday.
During his interview with Telegraph in 2021, Barnes explained how he wants to grow and improve as an actor to continue working in the industry as an adult.
For years, he's wanted to be in a web-slinger film, calling current MCU star Tom Holland "a huge inspiration to [him]." One of Barnes' other passions is parkour, which gives him the athletic background to take on a role in a Spider-Man film.
House of the Dragon is streaming on Max. The Season 2 finale will air on Sunday, August 4 at 9 p.m. ET on HBO and Max.
Read more about House of the Dragon on The Direct:
Every Game of Thrones Universe Dragon Ranked From Largest to Smallest
House of the Dragon: How Many Seasons Will There Be In Total?
