How will Game of Thrones season 8 end? Former cast members weigh in
Recently, Game of Thrones star Nikolaj Coster-Waldau (Jaime Lannister) described the ending of the show in three words: “Surprising. Enormous. Heartbreaking.” Although they’re not as well-informed, former cast members are making their forecasts, too. Take Richard Madden (Robb Stark), for example, who told Men’s Health he was looking forward to seeing how the show wraps up:
"You know, I don’t think I can quite feel the weight of it [ending]. But I am excited. I’m excited for that story to come to an end. It played out so rich, so beautifully, so full. It’s exciting when you’re able to get to the end of a story and then you get to leave it. You get to say goodbye to something for good."
Natalie Dormer (Margaery Tyrell) dove into a little more detail when she spoke with Bustle. While she’s nervous for all the characters, she’s particularly focused on one of her old scene partners. “I worry, you know, I worry about Sansa. I just spent so much time with Sophie [Turner]. I love her journey as a character — she’s grown so much. I worry about Sansa.”
It’s good to see that Dormer is still fond of Sansa. Cersei, on the other hand…
"I want [Cersei] to have a massive revelation of self. It’s not enough that she just dies, you know? I don’t want her to suffer pain… I want her to have a revelation of her inner demons before she dies. And be disgusted with herself!"
Given what Cersei did to the Tyrells in “The Winds of Winter,” we suppose it’s only natural for Dormer to to feel a certain kind of way about her. We’ll see if she gets her wish next year.
And Dormer may be basing her predictions partly on inside information. She hasn’t been on the show for a while, but apparently she’s still been talking to her old friends from the set:
"Oh, I know who ends up on the Iron Throne, but I don’t know how it happens. I do know that they’ve been shooting a lot of battle sequences, so there’s been a lot of action. But of course, they’re going to, it’s the big old fight, right? It’s the fight to the finish."
So if Dormer is worried for Sansa and looking forward to Cersei’s death, are we to assume that neither of them end up on the throne? Please speculate responsibly.
Finally, Brenock O’Connor (Olly) spoke to Express about the scene from “Mother’s Mercy” where his character stabbed Lord Commander Jon Snow in the heart:
"I had no idea it was coming until three weeks before because they send scripts two episodes at a time. But I was like, ‘Wow this is huge and people are going to hate me’. I’d taken out Ygritte the year before so I was like, ‘I’m taking them all out!’"
Yeah, he predicted the bit about people hating him pretty well. In fact, to hear him tell it, things got downright scary:
"I woke up and I had a tweet from a random guy in America, and it hadn’t even come out in England because it was aired the night before in America, and it was, “I’m going to murder you and your family and rape their corpses and feed it to my dogs.” I was 15 at the time and was like “OK, so that’s out there.” But you’ve just got to take it because you’ve done a believable job. Pat yourself on the back. You’ve just got to let skim over you — it’s not real."
Good on O’Connor for keeping things in perspective.
O’Connor knew Olly was done for when he got the call to return to the show for season 6. “I knew when I was coming back – if I was back for season six – there was no way I was going to survive. There was no way those characters could get away with it.” His death scene — death by hanging — was apparently more fun to film than it looked. “It was great fun. I was 16 at the time. Full body harness, rope around your neck, dropped about 35 times that day.”
"It was night shoot, it was late and we wanted to get the job done so we put our heads down and we got there. Kit [Harington] is just professional until the end. He is a lovely man he will joke about, he will have a laugh with you just like everyone else will but everyone knows when the laughter needs to stop and the work needs to start."
Hanging is only a downer if you let it be…if it’s fake.
As for who he thinks will rule Westeros in the end, O’Connor went apocalyptic with it:
"I really want to say the [Night] King. It’s been leading up to there – there’s been so many premonitions."
That’s certainly one way to go, and very on-brand for the guy who (played the character who) killed Jon Snow.
Want more of these former Game of Thrones stars? Madden’s newest film, Ibiza, is a Netflix Original romantic comedy where he plays a DJ. And you can watch Dormer in her new series, Picnic at Hanging Rock, on Amazon Prime. And O’Connor is a new movie called The Bromley Boys.
Next: A Song of Dan and Josh: Daenerys V
To stay up to date on everything Game of Thrones, follow our all-encompassing Facebook page and sign up for our exclusive newsletter.
Watch Game of Thrones for FREE with a no-risk, 7-day free trial of Amazon Channels