Game Of Thrones: Kit Harington Thought Jon Snow Would Kill the Night King

Game of Thrones star Kit Harington admits he thought his Jon Snow would be the one to finally slay the Night King (Vladimír Furdík), who was ultimately vanguished by Arya Stark (Maisie Williams) in the Battle of Winterfell.

"I was surprised, I thought it was gonna be me!" Harington told EW.

"But I like it. It gives Arya's training a purpose to have an end goal. It's much better how she does it the way she does it. I think it will frustrate some in the audience that Jon's hunting the Night King and you're expecting this epic fight and it never happens — that's kind of Thrones. But it's the right thing for the characters. There's also something about it not being the person you expect. The young lady sticks it to the man."

"For, god, I think it's three years now we've known that it was gonna be Arya who delivers that fatal blow," executive producer and co-showrunner David Benioff said.

Added executive producer and co-showrunner D.B. Weiss, focus was drawn away from Arya to add to the surprise of her major kill.

"She seemed like the best candidate, provided we weren't thinking about her in that moment," Weiss said.

"One of the great things about having this many people you care about in a sequence together is that you can pull people's attention and focus to people that they care about a lot like Jon and like Dany, Theon and Bran, not to mention Tyrion and Sansa in the crypt so you're going all over the place with people you're desperately worried for — hopefully you forget about the fact that Arya Stark ran out of that castle with the battle drums playing and going towards some purpose, we don't know what until it happens."

The kill was one of the most talked about moments belonging to the Battle of Winterfell, which also claimed the lives of many, among them Eddison Tollett (Ben Crompton), Beric Dondarrion (Richard Dormer), young noblewoman Lyanna Mormont (Bella Ramsey), Theon Greyjoy (Alfie Allen), and Jorah Mormont (Iain Glen).

Game of Thrones premieres episodes of its eighth and final season Sundays at 9 p.m. on HBO.

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