The only thing that might upset fans more than the Game of Thrones series finale is that their Khaleesi was this close to being in a Marvel movie.

Over the weekend, Iron Man 3 co-writer Drew Pearce posted a picture to Instagram from the table read for that 2013 Marvel Cinematic Universe sequel with a short — but mind-blowing — caption about GoT star Emilia Clarke:

Pearce was filling in for Paul Bettany as JARVIS, but the huge reveal here is that Clarke was cast in director Shane Black’s blockbuster threequel and then, um… yeah we don’t know what happened after that.

Dollars-to-donuts, we’d bet that the script changes Pearce referred to in his post to have to do with the changes to the villain’s role in Iron Man 3. The original plan for the sequel was to have the character of Maya Hansen be the main villain of the movie. Shane Black revealed that plans changed in large part to Marvel executives shooting down the idea because those execs (Ike Perlmutter, we know it was Ike Perlmutter) thought “that [character’s] toy won’t sell as well if it’s a female.” Eye roll.

Rebecca Hall ultimately signed on to play Hansen, with the character becoming a secondary villain to Guy Pearce’s Killian (AKA The Mandarin.) Jessica Chastain was also reportedly circling the role of Hansen. Like Clarke, it is likely the Oscar-nominated Chastain vacated the project when what they signed up for was no longer an option.

We hope more of this story comes to light, and obviously Clarke is a scary-talented actor. The MCU would be lucky to have her. Here’s hoping a role comes along in Marvel’s Phase Four that’s worthy of the Breaker of Chains’ talents.