Riverdale Star Responds to Backlash Against Her Defense of Game of Thrones

Game of Thrones‘ series finale airs Sunday night, but after last week’s controversial episode of the HBO epic’s final season some fans have been pushing for the entirety of Season 8 to be remade — complete with a petition demanding it. It’s a reaction that Riverdale star Lili Reinhart quickly slammed and now, she’s doubling down on her comments in response to backlash she’s received.

On Friday Reinhart, who plays Betty Cooper on the popular The CW series, commented on an Instagram post from Variety that reported on the remake petition. In her comment, she called the petition “ridiculous” and rightly declared that “this is not how television works”. Her comments didn’t exactly go over well with fans though, prompting another reaction, this time shared to her own Instagram stories (via BuzzFeed).

“For the people coming at me for my Game of Thrones petition comment: It’s inappropriate as an audience member to demand change from an entire crew of writers, creators, performers, etc. just because it did not satisfy you,” Reinhart wrote. “Fans, of course, are an incredibly large reason why shows are successful… But it does not excuse certain destructive and disrespectful behavior towards people who have dedicated their entire lives to creating a show or film.”

“Try to imagine this: A person walks into a painter’s gallery… a painter they have always been a fan of… and they tell the artist ‘I don’t like what you did here. You probably should’ve done it this way,’” she continued. “That would be incredibly entitled, no? So think about it that way. Bye.”

Reinhart isn’t alone in addressing the entitlement exhibited by not just those petulantly demanding the remake but critics as well. Game of Thrones star Kit Harrington had some strong words for critics earlier this year himself.

“I think no matter what anyone thinks about this season—and I don’t mean to sound mean about critics here—but whatever critic spends half an hour writing about this season and makes their [negative] judgement on it, in my head they can go fuck themselves,” Harington shared with Esquire. “‘Cause I know how much work was put into this. I know how much people cared about this. I know how much pressure people put on themselves and I know how many sleepless nights working or otherwise people had on this show. Because they cared about it so much. Because they cared about the characters. Because they cared about the story. Because they cared about not letting people down.”

He added, “Now if people feel let down by it, I don’t give a fuck—because everyone tried their hardest. That’s how I feel. In the end, no one’s bigger fans of the show than we are, and we’re kind of doing it for ourselves. That’s all we could do, really. And I was just happy we got to the end.”

The series finale of Game of Thrones airs Sunday at 9 p.m. ET on HBO. Riverdale will return to The CW Wednesdays this fall.