It’s not only filming season that begins this month, but hype season as well: as the cast members are given the scripts and start working on the eighth season of Game of Thrones, they can’t avoid teasing us about what we can expect from the show’s ending. This time the teaser was John Bradley, who plays Samwell Tarly on Game of Thrones.
In a new interview with HuffPost, Mr. Bradley gave his thoughts about season eight and the impressive directorial lineup that was recently revealed, composed of old favorites David Nutter (“The Rains of Castamere,” “The Dance of Dragons,” “Mother’s Mercy”) and Miguel Sapochnik (“Hardhome,” “Battle of the Bastards,” “The Winds of Winter”), and the showrunners too, David Benioff and D.B. Weiss (“Walk of Punishment,” “Two Swords.”)
“We assembled a team of directors this year who have been in charge of some of our big episodes in the past,” Bradley explained to HuffPost. “Miguel and David have done some of the standout episodes of previous seasons. Clearly every single episode of the six you’ve got left in Season 8 is gonna be monumental and needs somebody at the helm who’s done that kind of high-stakes, high-octane direction before for us.”
As for the showrunners taking charge of the last episode ever, Bradley considers it a “poetic” decision. He is convinced the series finale is “in the right hands” with Benioff and Weiss, and his reasoning is convincing: “They know everything about the show. They’ve been in charge of everything ― every key decision in all seven seasons so far has been made by David and Dan. I think they’ve done an incredible job with this series. They deserve everything they get, and they deserve the right to finish this show off in the way they see fit. I don’t think there’s anybody better qualified, so I can’t wait.”
And what can we expect from these last six episodes of Game of Thrones? According to Bradley, the directorial lineup promises a truly exciting ending: “I think what we used to call Episode 9 in Game of Thrones folklore — the episode when everything comes to a head and you get a lot of spectacular sequences — I think you’re gonna get six ‘Episode 9s’ this year. You can tell that because we’ve got directors who have been in charge of some of the most huge setpieces in the past doing episodes all throughout the season.”
If you want know about Bradley’s new role in the film American Satan, or (what’s perhaps more relevant to your interests) why he believes Sam didn’t really take credit for Gilly’s discovery about Rhaegar and Lyanna’s secret marriage, read the interview here.
