The final season of HBO’s hit series Game of Thrones became infamous shortly after it ended, with fans not exactly happy at how things went throughout the final eight episodes. Now a few years removed from that moment, actor Peter Dinklage has spoken up on why he thinks the backlash occurred.
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Speaking to The New York Times in a recent interview, Dinklage noted that he believes some of the backlash stemmed from fans being generally upset that the show was coming to an end.
“But I think the reason there was some backlash about the ending is because they were angry at us for breaking up with them,” Dinklage said. “We were going off the air and they didn’t know what to do with their Sunday nights anymore. They wanted more, so they backlashed about that.”
Dinklage later said that he believes some people likely wanted a happier ending than the one that they got and joked that the show was fiction, and should be treated as such. He also went on to say that the show itself was much more than just about who would end up on the throne at any given point.
“They wanted the pretty white people to ride off into the sunset together. By the way, it’s fiction. There’s dragons in it. Move on,” Dinklage joked. “No, but the show subverts what you think, and that’s what I love about it. Yeah, it was called Game of Thrones, but at the end, the whole dialogue when people would approach me on the street was, ‘Who’s going to be on the throne?’ I don’t know why that was their takeaway because the show really was more than that.”
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The actor went on to say that one of his favorite moments in the entire series was seeing Daenerys’ dragon burn down the Iron Throne in the final season, because to Dinklage, it ended what was an “irreverent” question and showed that things weren’t always about that.
While the fans likely still won’t be happy with how the show ended, excitement is still building around HBO’s next Game of Thrones installment, House of the Dragon, which is set to premiere next year.
