Even the *Game of Thrones* Actors Get Their Show Theories Wrong
The final season of Game of Thrones is fast approaching—mark your calendars for April 14. One thing that the series has delivered on since it premiered in 2011 has been the twists and turns in the story arcs of your favorite characters. These can get so extreme, it has inspired plenty of impassioned fan theories over the years. Even for the upcoming eighth season, which hasn’t even premiered, there are already plenty of predictions—about a statue of Jon Snow, about Sansa and Daenerys’ relationship, and more. And although we do know a bit about what to expected from the last six episodes, we’re still pretty much in the dark about who will claim the Iron Throne—and, of course, which of our favorite characters will emerge unscathed. As it turns out, fans aren’t the only ones who remain clueless on the latter front: The actors themselves don’t know, either.
Maisie Williams, who plays Arya Stark, told The Sunday Times that she and her mom wrote out who they thought would survive by the time the end credits rolled on the finale of the eight season. And apparently, neither of their brackets made it very far.
“I said, ‘Let’s predict the final series. You call who you think is going to be alive and who you think is going to be dead. So will I.’ And we did. And we were both wrong,” she said.
Joe Dempsie, who plays Gendry Baratheon, had a similar experience. “At the top of every script there is a cast list for every character involved in that episode. A few of us were tempted to check if we were in the last one,” he told The Sunday Times. Look, Gendry’s the last surviving blood Baratheon. He’s got to have a pretty strong claim. But I don’t even trust the fact that I have the answers in my brain. It feels like you’re walking around with a secret that the whole world wants to know.”
The cast may be well aware of how everything wraps up now. Still, they admit it’s going to be an emotional experience for viewers.
“It was very, very bittersweet,” Sophie Turner, who plays Sansa Stark, told The Hollywood Reporter in 2017. “The day where we had the final read-through for the final script, it was really bittersweet. It was hard. At the end of the very last script, they read aloud, ‘End of Game of Thrones.’ As soon as they read that out, pretty much everyone burst into tears. There was a standing ovation for [showrunners David Benioff and Dan Weiss]. We were all clapping and cheering. It was amazing.”
Whew. We’ll be getting the tissues ready—but at least we’re not alone in being completely off-base about some of our favorite characters’ fates.