Hannah Murray describes a deleted Gilly scene from season 7, and other tidbits

Con of Thrones 2018 is over, but there are plenty of interesting tidbits left to sift through. For example, one of the premiere guests at the event was Hannah Murray (Gilly), who revealed to us that she’d wrapped shooting on season 8 in our one-on-one interview with her. And during her spotlight interview on the con mainstage, she dropped some info about a deleted scene from season 7.

It’s actually an extended version of the scene from “Eastwatch” where Gilly reads about “Ragar” Targaryen and inadvertently stumbles upon the secret of Jon Snow’s true parentage. In the deleted portion, Gilly also discovered something much more personal. According to Murray, Gilly read a book titled Legend of the Long Night, which contained a story about a wildling who sacrificed his sons to the White Walkers. That, of course, sounds very much like what Gilly’s father Craster did to his own sons, and what almost happened to Baby Sam.

The prop department had actually created Legend of the Long Night in its entirely, and Murray joked about reading other pages between takes. She also dropped a few other behind-the-scenes tidbits:

• Speaking about season 8, Murray could only say that she got to work with “several” actors for the first time.
• Little Sam is played by a new set of twins in season 8. Little Sam appearance confirmed.
• Murray was excited to work with Stephen Dilane (Stannis) in season 5, only to find that her scenes at Castle Black only involved the other members of the Baratheon family.
• Kit Harington nicknamed Murray “Sack” after the wildling costume she wore for her first four seasons.
• Her audition scene was the season 3 scene where Sam sings to Gilly. Aw.
• Murray intentionally never smiled during her first few seasons, since Gilly had nothing to smile about. But things changed later in Gilly’s journey, which she called a “discovery of joy.”
• Murray believes GIlly sees Jon as competition for Sam, and does not like the King in the North that much.
• Murray personally “ships” Brienne and Jaime over Brienne and Tormund. She’s also a fan of Tyrion and Sansa.
• Gilly sorts into House Hufflepuff, while Murray sorts into Ravenclaw.
• If given the chance, Murray would love to play Cersei or Tyrion.

Overall, Murray was an engaging speaker, and knew how to fend off multiple attempts from the host to reveal season 8 spoilers, which is at once frustrating and admirable.

Next: Joe Dempsie (Gendry) has finished filming season 8, and other Con of Thrones notes

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