Game of Thrones star Nikolaj Coster-Waldau has said he “almost wanted to donate to” the petition for a new ending to the HBO show.
The actor, who played Jaime Lannister in all eight seasons, addressed the backlash to the show’s final season in a new interview, stating: “Obviously, I heard about it.”
Viewers were divided over the final eight episodes of the Emmy Award-winning series, with the last four episodes especially branded disappointing by fans.
It was because of this that one person published a petition calling for HBO to remake the final season without showrunners David Benioff and DB Weiss.
“[They] have proven themselves to be woefully incompetent writers when they have no source material (i.e. the books) to fall back on,” it read, referring to the original books by George RR Martin.
Coster-Waldau told Variety he thought the petition was “hilarious”, and said he “almost wanted to donate” for how ridiculous the desired outcome was: “HBO saying, ‘You’re right, so many people want it, we’re going to do it.’”
He said: “I think everyone had their own opinion. I find the world of fandom really interesting. Everyone wanted something specific and different from what they got.
“It’s a combination of – you imagine an ending; but also, I think if you’re a hardcore fan, it was really upsetting that it ended. You lived with this for eight seasons. I think there was a real fear that was going to go away.”
When asked about his own views on the ending, he remained coy on the subject.
”It was fine. It was great. It was fine. How do you end that story? Let’s talk about this in 10 years, then you can talk about it. But now, I think it’s a little too recent.”
Coster-Waldau, who is promoting his new film The Silencing, previously disagreed with the negative response to his character’s final scene.
Speaking at Comic-Con in July 2019, he said: “I thought it was perfect for him to end in the arms of Cersei [Lena Headey]. It made sense to me – that’s just my opinion.”
His co-star Conleth Hill, who played Lord Varys. accused the media of leading a hate campaign against the show.
