Game of Thrones star Nikolaj Coster-Waldau has admitted how astonished he was after seeing how the Lannisters are depicted in House of the Dragon, three years after hanging up his sword as Jaime Lannister.
Very soon, the season 1 finale of House of the Dragon is set to be released, as episode 10 divulges how Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen (Emma D’Arcy) will react to her half-brother Prince Aegon Targaryen (Tom Glynn-Carney) ascending to the Iron Throne in her place
While HBO had to contend with the final instalment being leaked online this week, many fans have been waiting with bated breath to watch the fiery chaos ensue on their TV screens.
A few weeks ago, Metro.co.uk caught up with Nikolaj, who starred in Game of Thrones throughout all eight seasons as Jaime, the twin brother and lover of Queen Cersei Lannister (Lena Headey), who was nicknamed the Kingslayer for killing King Aerys II Targaryen, otherwise known as the Mad King.
The actor – who stars in a gripping Audible true crime drama podcast called Radioman – confessed at the time that he hadn’t yet watched full episodes of House of the Dragon.
However, he had seen a clip of a Lannister character, who would have been milling around Westeros around 200 years before Jaime was a highly-regarded knight of the realm.
‘I didn’t think there would be any Lannisters, but suddenly, I just saw a clip with a Lannister, who seemed very smug,’ Nikolaj, 52, shared, confessing that he found the character ‘annoying’.
‘And then he also had a twin and I was like, oh my god, they have Lannister twins as well! They have the whole package.’
Drawing parallels between Jaime and Cersei’s romantic relationship and the habitual incest that goes on within House Targaryen, he added: ‘Of course I’m sure there’s also – being Targaryen – a lot of incest going on.’
Having seen trailers for House of the Dragon, Nikolaj said that it felt ‘very familiar and very different at the same time’, having played his role in Game of Thrones for eight years, from 2011 to 2019.
‘It looks great. You can see that Miguel [Sapochnik], who directed a lot of the big, big episodes on Game of Thrones is the showrunner on on this one, and you can see they’ve gone for the same aesthetic, if you will.
‘It is the same world. It is King’s Landing, but of course they’ve twisted it. So I can see that it’s a continuation, or I guess it’s before… but it is the same feel, the same world. And they have a massive budget on blonde wigs.’
As for whether he’ll catch up with House of the Dragon in future, Nikolaj said that he’s ‘sure’ he will ‘at some point’, but acknowledged that it took him a ‘long time’ to watch Game of Thrones.
During a recent interview with The Indian Express, Nikolaj said that he missed the people who he worked with on the acclaimed series.
‘I share that great experience with a great group of people in front and behind the camera. I miss seeing them on a daily basis.’
He added that he found the ‘family drama’ of the Lannisters ‘a lot of fun’, remarking: ‘I can’t think of anything that I hated or didn’t like, it was a positive experience.’
Nikolaj’s podcast Radioman, which he stars in as a voice actor and also co-created, is inspired by the true story of Dimiter Kenarov, who wrote a 2009 article titled Mask of Sanity about how he reported on the crimes of a serial killer.
Radioman follows the tale of former radio DJ Chas Vincent-Jones (Nikolaj) in the fictional Yorkshire town of Tanford, who uses a podcast to investigate local crimes, setting him and his friend DCI Ian Whittaker (David Morrissey) down a dangerous path.
The House of the Dragon finale airs on Monday from 2am on Sky Atlantic and NOW. Radioman is available to listen to on Audible.
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MORE : Will there be a season 2 of House of the Dragon?
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