When she read the script for the final season of Game of Thrones, Maisie Williams was just as surprised as fans to learn how Arya’s story would end: sailing into the west for places unknown. The way Williams figured it, Arya would probably go out killing Cersei. “I just wanted to be on set with Lena [Headey] again, she’s good fun,” Williams told Entertainment Weekly. “And I wanted Arya to kill Cersei even if it means [Arya] dies too. Even up to the point when Cersei’s with Jaime I thought [while reading the script], ‘He’s going to whip off his face [and reveal its Arya]’ and they’re both going to die. I thought that’s what Arya’s drive has been.”
Lena Headey was also looking forward to sharing a scene with Arya, but Cersei would end up dying in the arms of her brother Jaime, while Arya chose life and left the Red Keep before it collapsed around her target, with some helpful words from the Hound. As Williams reflected on the ending, it made more and more sense to her.
I guess sleeping with Gendry, seeing Jon again, realizing she’s not just fighting for herself anymore but also her family — it’s bringing up all these human emotions that Arya hasn’t felt for a long time. When The Hound asks her if she has another option, all of a sudden there are so many more things in [Arya’s] life that she can live for, that she can do. It was a shock for me because that wasn’t how I envisioned her arc going this year. Then I realized there were other things I could play, bringing Arya back to being a 16-year-old again.
Thank goodness the Hound was there to dole out some good sense, which is not a sentence we ever thought we’d type. “It’s not a Game of Thrones ending for Arya, it’s a happy ending,” Williams said. “It gave me a place to take Arya that I never thought I’d go with her again.”
“I’m nervous for what comes next and just want to prove myself as an actor and make the most of this series,” Williams continued. “There are not as many opportunities where you get to do everything with one character and this season there’s a whole spectrum I get to do. So whatever happens afterward, I made this count.”
We bid farewell to Arya as she makes her way west, and although we won’t be getting a spin-off series about her, we can only imagine the trouble she’ll get up to in the lands beyond the horizon.
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