HBO is famously secretive when it comes to its flagship show, Game of Thrones. A couple weeks back, programming president Casey Bloys even said that the show plans to shoot multiple endings so even the actors won’t know how it concludes. But Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, who plays Jaime Lannister on the series, isn’t buying it.
In an interview with marieclaire.com, Coster-Waldau expressed his doubts about the reports:
"Do you think that’s true? It seems really stupid to me. I mean if it’s true I don’t believe it, but I don’t know, maybe. I mean, I haven’t read the script, so unless they will show several endings that could be a twist, they’re not going to waste that money. They know how expensive it is to shoot. You’re not going to waste $100,000 a day to shoot something you’re not going to use. It’s not going to happen."
He has a point. Game of Thrones episodes are multimillion dollar affairs, and although the budget for Season 8 is spectacular, it’s still a budget. Is it worth it to HBO to spend a healthy portion of that budget to keep the series’ ending under wraps, or will the bottom line prevail, as Coster-Waldau suggests?
Regardless, there are many other questions swirling around about Season 8, and Coster-Waldau, speculated on several of them. Like many fans, he would be happy to see Jaime headed for Winterfell to spend some quality time with Brienne of Tarth. When asked which of his castmates is the most fun to work with, the actor replied, “Gwendoline Christie—hands-down. She’s just very funny to be around. She has a very particular laugh, which is infectious (in a good way).”
As for some popular fan theories, Coster-Waldau had not heard the one about Bran secretly being the Night King, but shrugged “why not?” when presented with it. He was similarly ambivalent about whether the army of the dead formed the Stark Sigil in the season 7 finale, as some fans have suggested:
“I don’t think there was a Stark Sigil,” he said. “Maybe there was. I’ll go back and look.”
Coster-Waldau was more definite about his hopes for a Jaime/Jon Snow confrontation. Jaime has endured a lot of jabs over his incestuous relationship with his sister, and Coster-Waldau thinks Jon’s affair with his aunt, Daenerys Targaryen, presents an opportunity for Jaime to be vindicated:
"I just want to have a scene…a scene where Jaime is with Jon Snow or Aegon Targaryen or whatever his name is. I really want Jaime to find out and I just want to have him laugh at it. Just constantly question him… so how’s your Aunt doing, Aegon? How’s she feeling? There must be a little bit of resemblance because everyone’s just going to applaud him. I think Jaime should be allowed a bit of a comeback."
Jaime has been hailed throughout the series for his prowess as a swordsman and a military strategist, but Coster-Waldau doesn’t think his character should go out in a blaze of bellicose glory. He believes the best ending for Jaime would be to die of “…just old age. He’s going to doze off and then you’re just going to hear a fart and that’s it.”
It’s doubtful the showrunners would let Jaime bid adieu in such an anticlimactic fashion, but if Coster-Waldau’s vision comes to fruition, hopefully it will be after Jaime settles things with his sister.
Next: The budget for each episode of Game of Thrones season 8 is really, really big
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