It has been a summer full of Game of Thrones anniversaries, but there was one surprising first in store for star Isaac Hempstead Wright. Wright attended an “Iron Anniversary” event in London, England where he sat on the Iron Throne for the very first time. Those who know the story of Bran “The Broken” Stark will see why this comes as a shock.
Warning: spoilers for Game of Thrones are ahead! Wright played Bran Stark for a decade on Game of Thrones, and fans everywhere were surprised when he ended up as the King of Westeros in the very end. However, the finale spared no time to put Bran on the throne itself, instead of showing him in his wheelchair at the Small Council table with other characters. That changed on Tuesday, June 22 in Leicester Square. A video published by The Associated Press showed Wright sitting down a brand new statue made to look like the Iron Throne.
Leicester Square is full of memorials for the iconic movies and TV shows filmed there over the last century, according to a report by Wiki of Thrones. This new statue coincided with the “Iron Anniversary” — a collection of virtual events hosted by HBO in memory of the Game of Thrones premiere in the spring of 2011. Over the last decade, the franchise has become one of the most popular in the world.
Of course, those virtual events also led many fans to rehash the ending of Game of Thrones and their extreme disappointment in it. Many are still furious at the writers and showrunners, who decided to end the show quickly in two shortened seasons, leaving little time to flesh out the plotlines leading up to the end.
Still, fans are actively dissecting the ending of the show to determine how the story will look in the books, A Song of Ice and Fire by George R.R. Martin. Many expect the same events to make more sense there — including the coronation of Bran Stark.
YouTuber LmL has written about this aspect of the story at great length, speculating that Bran’s magical abilities as a Greenseer will make him an ominous “god-king” in a way that the show only hinted at. He also postulates that Bran is unlikely to be seated on the Iron Throne itself, instead of taking a seat more relevant to his powers such as the island in the God’s Eye Lake, where the “Green Men” supposedly tend to a lush Weirwood Tree grove.
You can judge these theories for yourself after picking up A Song of Ice and Fire on Amazon here in print, digital or audiobook formats. Game of Thrones is streaming now on HBO Max. The first spinoff series, House of the Dragon, is slated for release in the spring of 2022 on HBO.
