How will Jon and Dany react when they find our they’re related? Game of Thrones stars speak
On a rainy November day in northern Ireland in 2017, TV Guide Magazine visited the Game of Thrones set while they were shooting the season 8 premiere. The biggest fantasy show on TV was hard at work producing a final act of epic proportions where four of the remaining six episodes had running times in the neighborhood of 80 minutes.
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“It’s our biggest season by far,” said showrunner David Benioff. “It’s only six episodes, but it was the longest [amount of time] we’ve ever shot, the biggest crew, the most extras and stuntmen. More people set on fire than ever before. It was intense.”
Kit Harington (Jon Snow) and Emilia Clarke (Daenerys Targaryen) spoke about their characters’ reactions to learning what the Thrones audience already knows: that Jon is actually a Targaryen and heir to the Iron Throne, and Dany is his aunt. Upon discovering the truth, “she [Dany] ends up in an incredibly fragile place,” Clarke says. “Jon is her only safety left.” Harington describes the revelation as an equally serious blow to Jon. “He’s not the kind of person who can jump in bed with a relative.”
Tyrion Lannister may not yet be aware of Jon and Dany’s intimate secret, but actor Peter Dinklage says that “he understands the potential danger for everybody if their relationship goes south.”
Once at Winterfell, Jon will introduce Dany to his sister Sansa, and according to actor Sophie Turner, there will be some tension. “Sansa is threatened [by Dany],” Turner explained. “She worked so hard to control the North and feels like Jon should be loyal. It’s frustrating to have Daenerys, who she feels is manipulating Jon, come in and take control.” And this on top of Jon and Sansa already having a bit of a fraught relationship. “They always have difficulty,” Harington said.
Harington also hints at a less-than-perfect reunion between Jon and his sister Arya (Maisie Williams). “They have led brutal lives since we last saw them together in the series premiere. It’s changed them. Are they going to be what we want them to be?”
Williams talked about how things have changed for Arya. “[S]he is balancing the woman she’s become with the girl she dreamed of being.” It was always Arya’s dream to return to her family. “Now that she is,” Williams says, “she has something to lose.”
Meanwhile, Cersei Lannister (Lena Headey) is as conniving and manipulative as she’s ever been, hiring the infamous Golden Company to help her take control of Westeros while everybody else is fighting to the death. “Cersei is scared,” Headey said, “but she stays in her safety lane, which is survival and a brave front.” One wonders how resilient Cersei might prove to be now that she’s driven her twin brother Jaime away.
For his part, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau (Jaime Lannister) is certain that his character understands why he must leave Cersei and their unborn child. “There is no future without defeating the threat,” he said. Upon arriving in Winterfell, Jaime must also confront his estranged brother, Tyrion. According to Dinklage, the Lannister boys seem able to let bygones be bygones: “Tyrion trusts his brother,” Dinklage said. “He loves him [Jaime]. We have some beautiful scenes.”
These intensely personal character moments are sure to be gripping. And it’ll all be on the line in the massive Battle of Winterfell, directed by Game of Thrones master of gorgeous mayhem Miguel Sapochnik, who won an Emmy for helming season 6’s “Battle of the Bastards.” The sweeping Battle of Winterfell took nearly three months to film with hundreds of extras and horses charging through the cold, raining Irish night.
“I wanted to cry,” Williams said of the unprecedented level of rehearsals, training and night shoots. We fans may not have had to experience the difficult work of the actors and crew, but we know our beloved characters are soon to meet terrible trials, and I can imagine the lot of us weeping too somewhere along the way.
Game of Thrones season 8 premieres on HBO on April 14.
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