Game of Thrones Season 8: actors talk about series finale and fans’ funniest predictions
- Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Emilia Clarke, Sophie Turner and other Thrones stars gathered at London’s Corinthia Hotel recently to talk about the final season
- They really don’t want to give away the ending
Winter has finally arrived. Game of Thrones, the HBO fantasy phenomenon based on the novels by George R.R. Martin, is back for its final season.
With just six feature-length episodes to go, questions will – or at least should – be answered. What havoc will the White Walkers cause? Will Jon Snow discover his true origins? Who will ascend the Iron Throne in Westeros? Will there be anybody left alive for the finale on May 19?
The internet forums are already awash with theories. “Someone just asked me if the characters’ endings are foreshadowed in the costumes!” says Carice van Houten, who has been with the show since the second season as the priestess Melisandre, with a laugh. “It’s beautiful that people even think that.”
Nor is that the most outlandish suggestion. “My favourite? Varys is a mermaid,” winks Hannah Murray, the British actress who plays “wilding” Gilly.
You only have to Google reactions to Thrones to see the impact it has made. Try the one of a bar full of people watching the moment where Melisandre resurrects Kit Harrington’s heroic Jon Snow from the dead: pin-drop silence followed by wild hysteria.