“Game of Thrones” star Richard Madden has traded his sword for a glass slipper, joining the cast of Disney’s live-action “Cinderella,” the studio announced Wednesday.

The 27-year-old Scottish actor will star opposite “Downton Abbey’s” Lily James, who will play the titular folk hero in the movie, which will hit theaters next year. Cate Blanchett headlines as Cinderella’s evil stepmother.

In Madden, who was a relative unknown before winning the role of Robb Stark on HBO’s hit fantasy drama series, “Cinderella” director Kenneth Branagh is getting an actor who is willing to take his lumps for the art.

“I was taking horse-riding lessons maybe four times a week because I had never ridden before,” Madden told the News last year. “I wanted to make sure when I go on set and I’m on a horse or doing any scene like that, I’d look like Robb would look, which is someone who had been on a horse his whole life. So there were a lot of sore thighs.”

(source)