The actors who have arguably become the stars of Game of Thrones in the last few years, Emilia Clarke and Kit Harington, may have finished—or may be about to finish—filming season eight, which would mean every scene with Daenerys Targaryen and Jon Snow has been shot… and that Game of Thrones may be wrapping up very, very soon!
We don’t know whether Clarke is officially done with season eight or not, but in any case she appears ready to say goodbye to Game of Thrones, as well as the cast and crew and the country of Northern Ireland, which has housed the production for so many years:
In the caption, Clarke begins by explaining the immediate context of the beautiful photo: “Hopped on a boat to an island to say goodbye to the land that has been my home away from home for almost a decade.” Then, she thanks the show: “It’s been a trip, Game of Thrones. Thank you for the life I never dreamed I’d be able to live and the family I’ll never stop missing”, followed by a heart emoji and a hashtag saying: “Last season it is”.
She’s right: it is the last season! Though we may still be months away—or perhaps as much as a year—from actually experiencing it, the reality of it is starting to hit those of us who follow the production closely, as production wraps up for one final time. How will we know when it’s really over? There will be clues: Emilia Clarke is saying goodbye; Liam Cunningham recently said he’d cut his beard as soon as he was done shooting, sparking another “hair watch”; and now the original hair watch subject returns!
Photo: HBO / Helen Sloan
Kit Harington has always maintained he would only keep his long locks as long as he was playing Jon Snow, so fans obsessed over the length of his hair a few years ago when his character supposedly died—in the end, he did get a slight hair cut, but it was in-universe, as part of Melisandre’s weird ritual. At any rate, it stands to reason we’ll see Harington cut his hair for real this time, and that will tell us when he’s done filming. It doesn’t just have to “stand to reason”, however, as the actor has told EW so himself:
“I’d like to step away and enjoy the obscurity, cut my hair, make myself less recognizable as the character, and go do and some other things with a completely new look and tone.” How short? “Short-short. The beard will be harder to get rid of. I quite like the beard. I like having the long hair and beard, but it will be like ritualistic thing. I can’t go into my next role looking the same. This role was brilliant, but I’ll need to get rid of Jon Snow.”
So the true Hair Watch returns! And this time he’ll do it for real, so there will be no doubts as to whether Harington cut his hair a bit or it was just a different hairdo. When it happens, we’ll know Harington’s done with Jon and with Game of Thrones… which, given his prominence, probably means Game of Thrones will be done filming too!
