Game of Thrones cast talks spinoffs, season 7, and who should sit the Iron Throne

Game of Thrones season 7 is less than a week away, and the cast and crew are teasing their hearts out. First, let’s check in with Entertainment Weekly, where the surviving members of the Stark family (including Jon) give their opinions on who should sit the Iron Throne.

So Isaac Hempstead Wright (Bran) wants Sansa on the Iron Throne and Jon at Winterfell, Kit Harington (Jon Snow) wants Sansa on the Iron Throne and Arya at Winterfell, Maisie Williams (Arya) wants Sansa at Winterfell and Jon Snow on the Iron Throne, and Sophie Turner (Sansa) wants Sansa at Winterfell and Jon Snow on the Iron Throne. No one wanted Bran anywhere?

Moving on, Buzzfeed asked a plethora of cast members what Game of Thrones spinoffs they’d pitch, the highlight of which is probably an adventure/romance/comedy/Miami Vice-type thing called Double-P and D-Dubz, pitched by Daniel Portman (Podrick Payne) and Jacob Anderson (Grey Worm). Watch the video below:

In more serious spinoff-related news, Gwendoline Christie (Brienne of Tarth) told Newsweek that she’d genuinely be interested in a spinoff about her character. “I have real love for Brienne of Tarth,” she said. “She’s such a fascinating character.  There’s so much there to mine and there’s so much there to utilize, you can really explore so many storylines about Brienne of Tarth.”

"I’d always consider it for that particular character. Because that character is very dear to me. [She’s] a tender woman, and an unusual woman. I’ve been so overwhelmed by the response to that character; it isn’t just women that approach me, it’s men, and people from all sorts of different backgrounds who somehow feel an affinity to Brienne and what she represents. I’d like to see more of that and I’d love to continue exploring it."

HBO is currently developing five different Game of Thrones spinoffs. Add The Continuing Adventures of Brienne to the pile.

Finally, Sophie Turner sat down with both Parade and Marie Clare to talk about growing up Sansa Stark, and it tease what she can about season 7. “There’s less feuding,” she told Parade. “Characters are coming together. There are alliances formed by people who haven’t met each other or haven’t seen each other in a long time.”

Turner tip-toed around specifics, but did say that, by this point in her development, she’s so comfortable with Sansa that nothing the character does really surprises her.

"I pretty much am very deep into the psychology of the character, so I find her decisions pretty logical and perfect responses to the situations that she’s in or that she’s been through in the past. I’m pretty in tune with her. She surprises with her strengths a lot, like just how strong and resilient she is throughout all of her situations. But none of her decisions tend to surprise me."

Now that the end of the show is in sight, Turner is also reflecting on what it so successful in the first place. “It balances fantasy and realness well,” she said. “There are fantastical elements that provide a sense of escapism, so that people can lose themselves in it, but at the same time, it’s not so fantastical that it doesn’t resonate with people. Despite the dragon and the White Walkers, you have characters with these very real relationships and emotions. I think we got the balance just right.”

Next: George R.R. Martin on the differences between Game of Thrones and A Song of Ice and Fire

Some other interesting notes from Turner’s interviews:

• Before she became a working actress, Turner would write and perform plays with her friends for fun. “One of our favorites was called Where Did All the Nannies Go? It was just her and me, and we played twins who were constantly being babysat, and then we killed off all the nannies.”
• Turner named her season 5 rape scene as one of the hardest for her to film. It was “an uncomfortable day on set.” Apparently, producer Bryan Cogman was crying. “He sat there going, ‘I am so sorry.’ They had known me since I was 13 and they were like, ‘This is so wrong.‘”
• Turner’s star is rising in Hollywood — she’ll be playing superhero Jean Grey in the upcoming X-Men: Dark Phoenix — but is carefully guarding against letting it go to her head. “I have a lot of friends who were brought up in the UK like me [who] are working in LA as actors. When I go over, I’m giving them shit and being sarcastic. They’re like, ‘Thank god.’ They’re stuck in this place where everyone is so far up your arse. It’s a business town, it’s understandable. But sometimes you just need someone to tell you that you’re not a fucking superstar.”