Former members of the Game of Thrones cast and crew have had a variety of reactions to the prequel series House of the Dragon, and in the wake of the Season 2 finale of the series airing earlier this week, Jon Snow actor Kit Harington admits that he doesn’t think he’ll “ever” watch the prequel. Harington was a key figure in all eight seasons of Game of Thrones, with the experience occupying a decade of his life, so it’s understandable that he won’t ever be able to enjoy the fantasy franchise the way audiences do, especially with rumors and reports that he could reprise his role as Jon Snow for a sequel series.
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“I just can’t watch it. For me, it’s just I spent too long there. And I wish them all the best and I hear it’s wonderful and going really well, but I don’t think I’ll ever watch that show,” Harington confirmed to the Associated Press. “I don’t think I’ll ever watch Game of Thrones again for very many years.”
While everyone involved in Game of Thrones have different connections to the massively successful HBO series, Harington has been one of the more vocal figures who has addressed the toll the experience took on his own mental health. The George R.R. Martin adaptation concluded five years ago, but Harington is still working on finding distance from the experience.
“It’s taken a few years to put it in the rearview and I’m still unsure whether it is fully in the rearview mirror,” the actor continued. As far as why he returned to HBO to join the cast of the series Industry, he noted, “I think it takes a long time but I think now is the right time, or it felt like the thing I wanted to do, was to get into doing a full character arc rather than just an episode of this, an episode of that, or a movie arc, I wanted to do a TV character arc again.”
In the wake of the conclusion of Game of Thrones, it seemed like a given that the concept could expand exponentially, though the coronavirus pandemic and last year’s writers’ and actors’ strikes took a toll on those expansion plans. One spinoff earned a pilot before HBO opted not to order it to series, and reports emerge on a regular basis about new projects moving forward or being delayed.
Both Harington and Martin have offered more disappointing updates than promising ones about the Jon Snow sequel series in recent years.
Stay tuned for updates on the future of Game of Thrones and House of the Dragon.
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