Game of Thrones was the show of 2019. There’s no getting around that. But was it the show of 2019 for the right reasons? The HBO fantasy drama’s final season left fans divided. There were think pieces. There was a petition from fans to have the show redone without creators David Benioff and D.B. Weiss involved. None of that bothered Peter Dinklage.
In an interview with The New Yorker, Dinklage, who is currently starring in Cyrano, said he didn’t follow fan response to the final season of the Emmy-winning series.
“Well, everybody’s always going to have an opinion, and that means an ownership. It’s like breaking up with somebody. They get upset. I can’t speak for everybody, but my feeling is they didn’t want it to end, so a lot of people got angry. I feel like what [the showrunners] Dave [Benioff] and Dan [Weiss] did was extraordinary,” Dinklage said.
Regarding the gripes about how the show handled the shift in Daenerys Targaryen’s character, Dinklage said, “This happens. Monsters are created. And you don’t see it coming. We vote them into office. You look the other way. So for everybody to get upset because they loved a character so much and they had so much faith in that person—there were signposts all along the way for that character.”
The actor, who has taken home four Emmys for playing Tyrion Lannister, said fans need to look at what happened before Daenerys Targaryen (Emilia Clarke) and her dragon laid waste to King’s Landing.
“It added up to something. There are people who’ve named their children Khaleesi. You’ve just got to maybe wait till the series finale before you get that tattoo or name your golden retriever Daenerys! I can’t help you! I’m sorry. She went mad. She was driven to that, and she’s a victim as well in terms of how she was treated. She went through it, and she came out angry, as a lot of us do,” he said.
Clarke has also defended the ending. In an interview on the UK series This Morning, she said the response to the final season left her feeling flattered.
“On every level, it’s just profoundly flattering that people genuinely cared that much and that they were with us for that long. I don’t read too much online because it’s not good for my brain but people are largely being very kind about Daenerys and it is lovely,” she said.
Game of Thrones may be over, but HBO is staying in the world of Westeros. A prequel about Daenerys’ family is coming to HBO Max with a straight to series order. House of Dragons from George R.R. Martin and Ryan Condal is set 300 years before the events of Game of Thrones and follows House Targaryen.
No premiere date has been announced.
