Nicolaj Coster-Waldau deems popular Game of Thrones fan theory “too obvious”

Near the end of the season 6 finale, Jaime Lannister returns to King’s Landing to find that Cersei has blown a hole in the center of the city, exactly what Jaime killed the Mad King Aerys Targaryen to prevent. Then, during Cersei coronation, he gives her an incredibly significant look, the kind of look a man who’s slowly regaining his sense of morality gives to his sister-lover when she’s gone too far.

The looks are very specific on this show.

This led to speculation among fans that Jaime would be the one to kill Cersei in seasons 7 or 8. It has a grim sort of poetry to it, doesn’t it? Jaime and Cersei have had a twisted but passionate relationship since they were teenagers, and he’s done a lot of dishonorable things in her name (pushing Bran out a window, for instance). But he’s been rediscovering his lost honor for a couple of seasons now, and Cersei’s pyromaniacal killing spree presents him with a test. Does he now care enough about justice to punish Cersei for the atrocity she’s committed? We’ve got our popcorn ready.

But actor Nicolaj Coster-Waldau poured a little cold water on that theory when talking to The Huffington Post. “It’s a theory … but it has a beautiful, romantic, tragic thing [to it],” he said of the Jaime-kills-Cersei idea. So far so good. “It’s probably too obvious.” Oh.

For the record, Coster-Waldau admitted that he has “no idea” what will ultimately happen, so it’s not like this is gospel. Still, it’s food for thought. He’s right that Game of Thrones has a history of avoiding the obvious plot development — to this day, people are still reeling with surprise from events like Ned Stark’s death, the Red Wedding, and the revelation of Hodor’s origin.

But it’s embraced the obvious at times, too. When Daenerys offered to trade one of her dragons for a slave army, not many fans thought she would go through with it, but that didn’t make her double-cross in “And Now His Watch Is Ended” any less awesome. And I doubt many predicted that Ramsay Bolton would emerge victorious in “Battle of the Bastards,” but the episode was still a knock-out. Despite whether people see it coming, I think a well-acted, emotionally complicated moment where Jaime executes Cersei before she can do more harm would be a scene to remember.

We’ll have to wait until season 7 (or, more likely, season 8) airs to be sure. In the meantime, the Post also talked to Coster-Waldau about his work as a goodwill ambassador for the United Nations Development Programme, in which capacity he advocates to stop climate change. He recently partnered with Google Street View to collect images of Greenland, where the effects of climate change are more obvious than in other parts of the world.

Game of Thrones season 7 will come out this summer.