Isaac Hempstead Wright: “There’s no way [the Starks] can just go back to being a family again”

Game of Thrones season 7 is mere days away, and the cast members are still blasting us with a fire hose filled with liquid hype. Let’s begin today’s rundown with Kit Harington, who was interviewed by Christopher John Farley for The Wall Street Journal. Harington has some interesting thoughts on who should ultimately sit the Iron Throne and on the overall themes of the show.

Elsewhere, multiple cast members teased a little-talked about aspect of season 7 to The Hollywood Reporter: how freaking cold it was to make. “When I said the line, that ‘winter is here,’ I knew what it meant,” Sophie Turner said of a moment from the season 6 finale. “It meant snow machines. Everybody hates snow machines…You eat a lot of fake snow.”

Some people, like Jacob Anderson (Grey Worm) had the opposite problem. “It was really hot. We’re wearing winter clothes in a very hot studio,” he said, although at least his new, sleeve-having getup chafes less than his old outfit. “I have scars on my body from that tunic. It’s very hard leather that just digs in. Now, I have an undercoat, and that’s really comfortable, even if it does get a little bit hot sometimes.”

One cast member who escaped discomfort: John Bradley (Sam), whose storyline moved south right before winter hit. “He’s smart. He was checking the weather forecast,” Bradley said. “Winter may be here, but Sam isn’t. He has his feet up. He’s twisting by the pool at the Citadel. He doesn’t have to worry about the weather at all.”

Bradley also gave an interview to CNET, where he shared his thoughts on Sam’s development over the seasons.

"People say: What has Sam gained in terms of personal development over the course of the seasons? He’s stripped off layers and layers off himself until he is left with a very brave soul and somebody who is very capable — somebody who’s capable of love and bravery and impulse. It’s like the old thing about the sculptor knocks away everything that’s not the statue. And that’s what it is with Sam.One of the great things about playing Sam over the last couple of years — well, since the start of it — is that as the audience sees him coming into his own, he sees himself coming into his own. As he discovers himself in the show, the audience [is] discovering exactly what’s in his beating heart as well at the same time."

Sam has certainly grown over the course of the past six years — the Sam we met in season 1 would have never swiped his family’s Valyrian steel sword out from under his father’s nose, which Bradley calls “the ultimate gesture of defiance.”

And Sam isn’t done fighting the good fight. Bradley reminded CNET that Sam didn’t travel to the Citadel so he could get out of the fray. “He wants to fight the same battle as everybody else, but he wants to fight it in his own unique way,” he said. “He knows he’s the only person who can fulfill the role that he wants to fulfill. He knows that Jon couldn’t do that. Sam knows what he’s good at.” In other words: swords aren’t going to win every battle. You need someone with brains around, too.

Finally, Masable caught up with Isaac Hempstead Wright (Bran Stark) on the red blue carpet at the Los Angeles premiere of “Dragonstone,” the first episode of season 7. First and most importantly, Wright made some funny faces when responding to questions:

"Isaac’s reactions to press-line questions — appreciation post. from freefolk"

Secondly, he had a seriously downbeat take on the prospects of a Stark family reunion.

"No way. There’s no way [the Starks] can just go back to being a family again. They’re all just such different characters now. I mean, they were different to begin with, but still brothers and sisters. Now, Arya’s an assassin. Bran’s a tree wizard. And Sansa’s this conniving political mistress. So putting them back together again… I think it would just end up being disappointing. That’s why I don’t think it should happen—because people would go, ‘Oh. Oh no.’"

Is he right? Have the Stark kids grown too far apart during their time away from home? We’ll find out when season 7 premieres this Sunday.

Next: HBO only expects to make ONE of the Game of Thrones prequel series currently in development

Other bits from John Bradley’s interview with CNET:

• Bradley weighed in on the theory that Sam is actually narrating this whole story from some point in the future: “It will contextualize everything that’s gone before if that is the case. If Sam does prove to be the narrator of the story, then that serves as a doubt bomb for everything else, because you know that you’re hearing everything through Sam’s interpretation of it. And does that necessarily mean Jon Snow has been the hero that he’s been, or is that Sam just paying lip service to that man that he loves so much?”
• On the similarities between Sam and the Spider: “I think there’s a similarity between Sam and another one of my favorite characters, Lord Varys, in so much as they’re the really powerful ones. Because they’re the people who have the ear of people in authority. There’s so many times that Sam has had Jon wrapped around his little finger and Jon doesn’t even realize it.”
• On what Bradley wants to steal from the set when the show is over: “But I’ve often thought if I am going to take something at the end of it, I’d like to take Sam’s mother’s thimble that he gave to Gilly. It represented so much about him and his attachment to his mother…I mean, to be fair, I’ve had that thimble in my pouch all this time. I could’ve nicked it a long time ago, but I play by the rules.”