Most fans of Game of Thrones weren’t exactly happy with the way the groundbreaking series came to an end. The final season or two felt rushed to many viewers, with the series that had been known for taking its time speeding through plot points at a rapid rate. It was as if there was suddenly a race to the finish line, even though HBO likely would’ve kept making the show for years. As it turns out, fans weren’t the only ones with the complaint; members of the cast thought things were rushed as well.
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During an interview with The Times, actor Conleth Hill talked about his frustration with the final two seasons of Game of Thrones. Hill had starred in the series as Lord Varys since the very first season, and he felt like the chance in pace at the end brought some unfortunate changes to his character as well.
“I thought I’d done something wrong. Right up until the last two series, I had no complaints at all,” Hill said. “I just felt frustrated with the last couple of series because Varys wasn’t the all-knowing character he had been. I think the writers wanted to do one thing to end it and the studio HBO wanted to do another. I felt that last series was a bit rushed. I was inconsolable, but now I’m fine about it.”
More Game of Thrones Spinoffs
The Game of Thrones journey for Hill and his co-stars may have ended, but the franchise is just getting started. House of the Dragon, the acclaimed prequel series, is currently in production on its second season. HBO also has numerous other spinoffs planned, including a Jon Snow-centric series and a show called A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms: The Hedge Knight.
“The plan is more of a creative one in that much of the reasoning behind it is that it has a smaller canvas, that there’s an intimacy to the visual canvas that allows us to generate the show faster than say House of the Dragon might turn around because there’s so much VFX,” HBO Drama Chief Francesca Orsi told Deadline. “You may know based on the novellas that dragons don’t exist so by virtue of that it will be a faster piece to turn around given that we don’t have all these visual effect assets needing to deliver.”
Passing the Torch From Game of Thrones to House of the Dragon
The negative reaction to the final season of Game of Thrones seemed to have very little impact on House of the Dragon. The show delivered record-breaking viewership through its first season and was a critical darling.
House of the Dragon star Emma D’Arcy plays Rhaenyra Targaryen, an ancestor of Emilia Clarke’s Game of Thrones character, Daenerys Targaryen. Given the connection the two characters share, and how similar they can be at times, it makes sense that Clarke passed on some advice to D’Arcy before the prequel show began.
“I spoke to Emilia Clarke before I started shooting, and she was beautiful and so generous,” D’Arcy said during a THR acting roundtable. “[She told me] loads of stuff, which honestly, I’m going to keep for myself. I’m also very lucky. That wig is a blessing; people don’t recognize me, so my day-to-day is broadly unchanged, which I feel very grateful for, not least because, and maybe this is also a question, I feel that the ability to observe others and not be the observed is so fundamentally important to our job. I guess I’ve just really worried about that.”
