'Game of Thrones': Gregor Cleganes, Ranked by Mountainousness (2024)

On April 17, 2011, a new HBO drama about warring families, icy zombies, and CGI dragons premiered, and whether you loved it or hated it, there's simply no denying the kind of impact Game of Thrones had not just on television, not just on pop culture, but on the world in general. Its epic journey was a wild, weird, and fascinating adventure, and to mark the occasion Collider presents "What Is Ten May Never Die," a ten-week retrospective on the show's legacy — what we remember fondly, what we wish we could forget, and everything in between.

Frequent visitors to Collider dot com could tell you we're all about celebrating pop culture's Big Bois. Godzilla. Kong. Every single person in the Fast & Furious franchise. So imagine our sheer joy when, ten years ago today, Game of Thrones introduced its biggest boi: Gregor Clegane, a.k.a The Mountain Who Rides, a freakishly large brute primarily known for A) Chopping people in half with a sword roughly the size of a surfboard, and B)That time he stuck his younger brother's head in a fire. Gregor is the only Game of Thrones character to be recast twice, killed, brought back from the dead, then killed again in an epic fiery clash; you can almost chart Game of Thrones eras by who was under that XL armor at the time.

Butas any geologist will tell you, not all Mountains are created equal. Below, you'll find our official ranking ofevery Gregor Clegane to stomphis way across Game of Thrones' eight seasons.

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4. Ian Whyte (Season 2)

The thing about Ian Whyte's Gregor Clegane is that he's so impossible tall he looks like a walking optical illusion. My man makes Charles Dance (6'3") look like the puppet from Saw. Any scene he shares with Maisie Williams has the same perspective as Gandalf standing in a Hobbit house. And yet, despitetowering several more miles above sea level than his castmates, Whyte's Gregor just doesn't scream mountain. He's more beanstalk than giant. Performance-wise, Whyte is the most quietly frightening, the most casually cruel, which really fit the vibe of Arya's time at the haunted torture-fortress Harrenhal. But for this character the physicality is the key, and Whyte just didn't quite fit the bill.

3. Conan Stevens (Season 1)

Whenever a popular series gets adapted to the screen, fans are understandably apprehensive about how their favorite characters will be brought to life. In the specific case of Gregor Clegane, A Song of Ice and Fire faithful were very quicklyrelieved of any worry when Conan Stevens immediately drove a jousting lance all the way through a squire poor's throat and then, one quick episode later, chopped a whole-ass horse in half. My man cleaved a full-grown stallion in twain. Stevens was a pretty natural fit for the character, given he looks like someone gave the Super Serum to a bulldog for the express purpose of perfecting deadlifts. (This is a compliment.) But his overall screentime is so brief—and so almost 100% dialogue-free–that I'd bet a good amount of people would sayHafþór Júlíus Björnssonwas Gregor from the start. A shame, because that much-too-quick tussle between Gregor and Sandor Clegane (Rory McCann) in "The Wolf and the Lion" is still one of Game of Thrones' best fights.

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2. Hafþór Júlíus Björnsson, But Dead (Seasons 5-8)

I love every aspect of Game of Thrones' Robert Strong storyline, one of the many times this high-fantasy drama made room for straight-up classic horror. That starts with an archetypal mad scientist in Qyburn (Anton Lesser), whose defining character trait is that he's extremely horny for human experimentation. One of my favorite small beats of the entire show is when Jon Snow (Kit Harrington) reveals a Wight to Westeros' assembled rulers, and while everyone is shocked and revolted there's just this brief shot of Qyburn visibly turned on. And what's a mad scientist without his creation: Ser Robert Strong, a reanimated Gregor Clegane in disguise, who provided the later seasons of Game of Thrones with its own Jason Voorhees. You wouldn't think the role would ask too much ofBjörnsson, but I was always deeply impressed by how much he could get out of a head-turn. Reviews remain...mixed on the events of season 8's "The Bells," but I still count themuch-hyped Clegane Bown between an undead Gregor and a hellbent-on-revenge Sandor to be one of the show's finest, most genuinely beautiful pieces of violence. Second only, of course, to that one time Robert Strong bounceda guy's head off a wall like one of those mini basketballs you win at a carnival.

1.Hafþór Júlíus Björnsson, Alive (Season 4)

There's never been a bad Gregor Clegane, but the reality is that Stevens and Whyte were hampered by theundeniable fact they are human. Conversely,I have yet to see convincing evidence thatHafþór Júlíus Björnsson did not descend from the peaks of Jotunheim to ensure humanity never won another World's Strongest Man competition. Anytime I write aboutBjörnsson, I'm obligated to first share this video ofthe guy throwing a washing machine five feet through the air, because, as the saying goes, a video of someonethrowing a washing machine five feet through the air is worth a thousand words.Björnsson is the best Mountain because he embodies the terrifying wonder of the Mountain—minus the murder—giving audiences that essential suspension of disbelief that any fantasy story lives and dies by. (It's not all just Big Beef, either;Björnsson is a low-key great physical actor.) The climactic trial by combat in season 4's "The Mountain and the Viper" is a Hall of Fame GOT scene for many reasons, Pedro Pascal's limitless reserve of charisma chief among them.But first and foremost, whenBjörnsson stomps into frame fully armored up, and Ellaria Sand (Indira Varma) asks "you're going to fight that?", you're genuinely asking the same thing.

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