You probably know him as the guy you love to hate. Sebastian Croft, or "Bash" to his friends, became a household name for playing the toxic, complicated Ben Hope in Heartstopper. But before he was roaming the halls of Truham Grammar, he was wandering through the memories of a Three-Eyed Raven.
Honestly, it’s one of those "blink and you’ll miss it" moments that makes rewatching old shows so fun.
If you go back to the sixth season of the HBO titan, you’ll find a very young, pre-fame Sebastian Croft in Game of Thrones. He didn't have a beard. He wasn't the Warden of the North. He was just a kid in a courtyard, swinging a wooden sword and giving us our first real glimpse into the childhood of the man who started it all: Ned Stark.
Who did Sebastian Croft play in Game of Thrones?
It’s easy to get confused because Ned Stark has more "versions" than a software update. Most people think of Sean Bean—the iconic, honorable, and ultimately headless patriarch of Season 1. Then there’s Robert Aramayo, who played the young adult Ned during the legendary Tower of Joy sequence.
But Sebastian Croft was the very first "Young Ned" we ever saw.
He appeared in Season 6, specifically in the episodes "Home" and "The Door." Through Bran Stark’s visions, we travel back to a sunny afternoon at Winterfell. Croft plays Ned as a young boy, roughly 12 or 13 years old, sparring with his younger brother Benjen.
It’s a quiet, domestic scene. There are no dragons. No ice zombies. Just two brothers and their sister, Lyanna, riding in on a horse to show them both up. For fans, it was a massive deal. We’d spent five years hearing about the "legendary" Starks of the past, and Croft was the one tasked with making that legend feel human.
Why his performance actually mattered
You might think a two-episode cameo is just a footnote. It isn't.
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At the time, the show was pivotally shifting from the "present day" politics of King’s Landing to the deep, ancient history of the Stark family. Croft had to embody the "quiet wolf" persona that Sean Bean made famous. He wasn't playing a hero yet; he was playing a second son who had no idea he’d one day carry the weight of the Seven Kingdoms on his shoulders.
The chemistry between Croft’s Ned and the young Lyanna (played by Cordelia Hill) was the emotional anchor for everything that came later. If you didn't believe they were a tight-knit family in those few minutes, the reveal of Jon Snow’s parentage later in the season wouldn't have hit nearly as hard.
Croft actually had to learn how to fight for the role. Not with real steel, obviously, but the choreography for those sparring scenes with Benjen (Matteo Elezi) had to look like the foundation of a Great Lord’s training.
The "Young Ned" Spinoff: Is it happening?
The internet has a long memory. Recently, Croft has been doing press for his newer projects, like the horror-comedy Get Away (2024). Naturally, someone asked him about Westeros.
Croft has gone on record saying he’d be "totally down" for a spinoff centered on a young Ned Stark. Think about it. We know how Ned died. We know how he grew up during the war. But there is a huge gap between the kid Croft played and the war-weary man Bean portrayed.
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"What he becomes, where you meet him in Season 1... what his journey towards that was, I think would be very interesting," Croft told Screen Rant.
Whether HBO actually pulls the trigger on a "Robert’s Rebellion" prequel remains to be seen. They’ve been picky with their spinoffs. But if they do, Croft’s name is already at the top of every fan-casting list on Reddit.
From Winterfell to Heartstopper
It’s wild to see where his career went after that brief stint in the North. Most child actors in Game of Thrones either disappeared or became massive stars (shoutout to Bella Ramsey). Croft took a slightly different path, leaning heavily into his theater roots before landing Heartstopper.
- Stage Background: He was Gavroche in Les Misérables.
- The "Bash" Factor: Fans call him Bash, a nickname that stuck during his West End days.
- Voice Acting: He’s the voice of the male protagonist in Hogwarts Legacy.
The range is actually pretty insane. Going from a noble Stark kid to the voice of a wizard, and then to one of the most hated (yet brilliantly acted) characters on Netflix, shows he wasn't just a "child actor" fluke. He’s a craftsman.
What you should do next
If you haven't seen his Game of Thrones episodes in a while, it’s worth a revisit.
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Go watch Season 6, Episode 2 ("Home"). Pay attention to the way he carries himself in the courtyard. You can see the seeds of the Ned Stark we all loved—the stillness, the focus, the sense of duty.
After that, check out his work in Horrible Histories: The Movie – Rotten Romans. He earned a BAFTA nomination for it, and it’s a total 180 from the gloom of Winterfell. If you want to see the full evolution of a performer, watching his transition from a silent flashback character to a leading man is a pretty great roadmap for any aspiring actor.
Stay tuned to HBO’s development slate, too. With A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms on the way, the door for more Stark history—and perhaps a return for Croft—is never truly closed.