Did Ed Sheeran‘s Game of Thrones character bite the dust? The singer doesn’t seem to think viewers would be particularly upset if that’s the case.
Sheeran opened up about his season 7 premiere cameo as a Lannister soldier in a new interview with MTV, responding to speculation that his on-screen persona was a victim of the dragon-caused carnage of a later episode.
“We were all quite young, those soldiers,” Sheeran told the outlet. “I doubt I’m going to survive for that long, to be honest, when there are dragons in the world.”
Sheeran also noted, “No one wants to see me come back. I wanted to be a cameo in it, and I’ve done the cameo,” adding, “I’m cool with it, though. I enjoyed it.”
The star’s surprise appearance wasn’t exactly well-received, prompting even GoT director Jeremy Podeswa to come to Sheeran’s defense. “He came into this with only lovely intentions to come and do a good job and sing well, so I think that’s the only drag,” Podeswa told Newsweek at the time. “If people didn’t know who Ed was, they wouldn’t have thought about it twice. The hoo-ha seems to be from things that are outside of the world of the show. In the world of the show, he did a lovely job, and he looks like he belongs in that world.”
Sheeran deleted his Twitter after the episode aired as well, prompting many to think the move was a result of the backlash. But Sheeran denied the speculation, writing on Instagram, “I came off Twitter [because] I was always intending to come off Twitter. [It] had nothing to do with what people said about my Game of Thrones cameo [or] because I am in Game of Thrones. Why the hell would I worry what people thought about that? It’s clearly f—ing awesome.”
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Further opening up to MTV, Sheeran revealed the cameo came to be because of his personal friendship with star Maisie Williams, who portrays Arya Stark.
“She’s come to gigs for years,” Sheeran said. “They basically put me in a scene with her to kind of be like, ‘Hey, thanks for doing the show for so many years. Ed’s going to be in it.’ “
