The lineup for this Friday’s Game of Thrones panel at San Diego Comic Con just got a little less full, according to an official announcement from HBO.
Showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, celebrated director Miguel Sapochnik, and actors Iain Glen (Jorah Mormont) and Nathalie Emmanuel (Missandei) will no longer appear on the Hall H panel.
No reason is cited for their cancellation in the tweet.
The #GoTSDCC panel taking place Friday, 7/19 at 5:30PM in Hall H will now consist of panelists @Maisie_Williams, @RaleighRitchie, @nikolajcw, @isaac_h_wright, @johnbradleywest, @liamcunningham1 & Conleth Hill.
Follow our ravens for updates.
— Game of Thrones (@GameOfThrones) July 17, 2019
Nikolaj Coster-Waldau (Jaime Lannister), Maisie Williams (Arya Stark), John Bradley (Samwell Tarly), Isaac Hempstead Wright (Bran Stark), Jacob Anderson (Grey Worm), Liam Cunningham (Davos Seaworth), and Conleth Hill (Varys) will still be attending, according to the announcement.
Just yesterday, Game of Thrones picked up a record number of Emmy nominations for the final season of the show, with nominations for Sapochnik, Coster-Waldau, and Williams, among the many nods.
Portions of the fandom have gotten remarkably toxic during and since the airing of the final season, seeming to take pride in coordinating public attacks on the writers/producers of Game of Thrones. It wouldn’t be a surprise if Benioff and Weiss and some actors felt unsafe at SDCC.
On the upside, I saw very mature, intelligent discussions about season 8 happen at Con of Thrones, where people were able to debate the merits and dissenting opinions about the season and characters in a respectful fashion throughout the weekend. This fandom is mainly full of good people, and I believe the good still far outweighs the bad.
