Nathalie Emmanuel has said that she was ‘blown away’ by the Game of Thrones finale, as she joined her fellow cast members in criticising a fan petition that called for the final series to be remade.
The former Hollyoaks actress told TV Line: ‘Listen, I think it’s totally fine if you don’t like something. That’s perfectly acceptable.’
Speaking about the online campaign, which was signed by nearly 1.7 million critics, Nathalie continued: ‘What I didn’t like was that people were signing a petition.
‘You can’t ask for receipts on art. You just can’t. The art has been created for you, and you can either choose to like it or not.’
The 30-year-old actress, who is set to star in Mindy Kaling’s upcoming TV adaptation of Four Weddings and a Funeral, described pleasing everyone with the final series as ‘a hard plane to land.’
‘I don’t think people quite realise the undertaking and the amount of manpower it took to do that,’ she said.
Since it first aired in 2011, Game of Thrones developed a global cult following, with the series eight finale estimated to be HBO’s most watched show ever.
However, despite receiving 32 Emmy nominations, many fans felt that the quality of the writing went drastically downhill in the final series, with the petition calling showrunners David Benioff and D. B. Weiss’ writing ‘woefully incompetent.’
Seemingly wanting to avoid meeting the show’s angry fans, the head writers dropped out of the Game of Thrones panel at San Diego Comic Con at the last minute, causing further backlash.
However, the Game of Thrones cast were there at the fan expo and all leapt to the defence of the final series.
Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, who played everyone’s favourite incestuous Kinslayer Jaime Lannister on the show, said: ‘It was surprising, the absurdity of the online petition. Of course, HBO is going to change the whole thing, because that’s the power of the internet.’
The Danish actor went on to echo Natalie’s sentiment, saying: ‘When it comes to an end, it’s going to p*ss you off no matter what, because it’s the end. And that’s alright. If you hated the ending, or you loved it? That’s great – just don’t call people names.’
Game of Thrones seasons one to eight are available to stream on NOW TV.
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