Bella Ramsey (Lyanna Mormont) “highly doubted” she’d return for season 8

Bella Ramsey, the fiery actor behind Game of Thrones fan favorite Lyanna Mormont, has been giving some revealing interviews lately. In a chat with Metro, she revealed that she didn’t even think the showrunners had any intention of bringing her character back for the show’s final season.

It’s a little perplexing to imagine how she could have thought that given Lyanna’s popularity, not the mention the importance of House Mormont over the course o the show. Still, Ramsey had her doubts:

"After I finished season six I didn’t know whether I was going to be back for season seven, then after seven I highly doubted that I’d be back for season eight. So the fact that they asked me back, I’m very grateful."

But Ramsey did return, just in time for an undead giant to crush her to death in “The Long Night.” It was one of the most memorable moments of season 8, and Ramsey has had to relive it over and over again. “I watched the episode when it came out but people like showing me my own death scene. It’s quite funny.”

Funny, sure, that’s one way of putting it — Ramsey adds that it’s “a bit strange” for people to play that scene for her over and over. Maybe mix in the one where she helps get Jon elected as King in the North?

HBO

By now, the shooting schedule for “The Long Night,” which included 50+ nights on set, is infamous. Happily, because she featured mainly in an isolated sequence in the Winterfell courtyard, Ramsey was able to wrap up her work in seven nights, which she describes as “enough.”

Ramsey understands how difficult the grueling nocturnal schedule was for the main Thrones cast and crew. “I don’t know how they did it. It was winter and filming in minus temperatures at midnight, so it made your body clock go completely out of order.” But she also relished the experience. “I enjoyed shooting at night, there’s a different energy on set,” she said. “It got very cold one night, I got so cold I couldn’t speak – that’s Belfast at midnight!”

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Fortunately for us, Ramsey fought through the cold and turned in a final performance to remember. She is particularly fond of Lyanna’s scene with Ser Jorah Mormont (Iain Glen) in “A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms,” the episode before the Battle of Winterfell. “[T]hat was the first scene that wasn’t a big scene in a horde which was nice – it was refreshing to have a scene like that. It was an honour to be part of it.”

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