John Bradley, who played Samwell Tarly on the show, recently appeared on the “Just for Variety” podcast to promote his role in “Moonfall,” and the “Game of Thrones” finale inevitably came up. The actor said that the show’s popularity put the creators in an impossible situation, as there was no way any finale could satisfy the entire fanbase. “Chances are we were going to please a fraction of people,” he said. “There are so many different permutations to it and if we’d have gone with any one of these then everyone would have been unhappy about that one.” However, he hopes that enough time has passed for fans to view the ending in a new light. Once the pressure of sticking the perfect landing has faded, he believes fans of the show will find that “the wounds have healed a little bit” and re-evaluate the ending.
He went on to defend the work of showrunners David Benioff and D. B. Weiss, saying it was unfair to view the divisive finale as representative of everything they are capable of. “You feel like saying ‘they were still in charge when you loved it,’” he said. “All the way along and all the bits you remember, none of them would have happened if they hadn’t been in control. So maybe they’re due a bit of a break.” But while the series finale remains as polarizing as ever, “Game of Thrones” is not going anywhere. “House of the Dragon,” a prequel series set 300 years before the show, is set to debut on HBO later this year. The network is also developing four other live action spinoff series as well as three animated ones. Sign Up: Stay on top of the latest breaking film and TV news! Sign up for our Email Newsletters here.
