‘Game of Thrones’ finale received a lot of criticism from viewers for various reasons since it aired on HBO in 2019. But Peter Dinklage stood by the ending in a recent chat with Rolling Stone.
“No, but that’s the thing. Again, just my opinion. I like the finale! You don’t have to agree with me,” he shared. “How about if I said like, ‘Yeah, I agree. I hated the finale. The whole last season was horrible?’ I mean, that would sit much worse than if I said I loved it, which I did.”
“I can’t speak for anybody else’s opinion, and that’s what makes what we do fun, because everybody does have a difference of opinion and everybody gets to write about it and chat about it and drink over it and argue about it. It’s great. I mean, I think it means you’re doing something right. It’s like an old Irish way of looking at the world. There’s something wrong if everything’s OK. [Laughs]”
The finale saw Emilia Clarke’s Daenerys Targaryen burning down King’s Landing, killing many people including Cersei and Jamie Lannister. Kit Harrington’s Jon Snow took her life among the ruins following the rampage. He later left the city for good, and Bran Stark ended up sitting on the throne.
While some were unhappy with how the story wrapped up after eight seasons, many viewers believed the ending would make sense if it weren’t rushed, especially with the Night King plotline.
The showrunners, David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, responded to the criticism by saying they originally wanted to explore the final season’s events in more detail with three movies but were stopped by HBO.
“We had actually considered this option,” George R.R. Martin confirmed in 2020. “David Benioff and Dan Weiss, the two creators behind the series, actually wanted to end the saga after the seventh season with three big movies. ‘Game of Thrones’ was to end in the cinema. Four or five years ago, it was seriously discussed.”
‘Game of Thrones’ returned with a prequel spinoff, ‘House of the Dragon,’ three years after the finale. The show’s second season concluded in August while the studio confirmed it would be back for Seasons 3 and 4.
