Game of Thrones is ending, and TV lovers around the world are holding their breath to see if anything else can equal its popularity and cultural impact. Is Game of Thrones “the last great water cooler show,” as some publications are naming it?
Kit Harington (Jon Snow) doesn’t think so. Speaking to Digital Spy and other press, he thinks we’ll see something else arrest our imaginations sooner or later. “There’s [always] something new that comes along,” he said. “It’s hard to remember now in some ways, but when we were in our seasons one, two and three, Breaking Bad was ‘the biggest show there’s ever gonna be’ and before that, [it was] The Sopranos.”
Sopranos, no-one expected that – a TV show about gangsters. Breaking Bad, no-one expected that – a chemistry teacher who makes meth. Thrones came and changed the fantasy genre and no-one expected that. [So] it’ll be something that no one expects.
I take Harington’s point, although I’d also note that The Sopranos and Breaking Bad, even at their height, didn’t have the impact of something like Game of Thrones. But I agree that if there is another show as popular as this, it’ll be something we don’t see coming, which is why I’m raising an eyebrow at studios like Amazon and Netflix throwing so much money at big-budget fantasy epics. Is the next big hit really going to come out of the same genre as Thrones?
In any case, Harington’s costar Isaac Hempstead Wright (Bran Stark) disagrees with him. “I don’t think there’ll be anything, at least in my lifetime, that becomes the phenomenon that Game of Thrones did,” he said. “It has changed the TV landscape, and TV now is a very different thing to what it was when we first embarked on this journey.”
It’s sort of the pinnacle of what everybody wants to do now. Films aren’t all that important in the face of a lot of television nowadays, and I think Game of Thrones is a genre-defining aspect of that.
And Bran can tell the future, sort of.
So we have two opposing viewpoints. What side of the fence do you fall on?
In other news, Harper’s Bazaar just published an interview it did with Harington back in March before season 8 premiered. He talked about how weird it was to film his final scene:
Well, it’s strange isn’t it? It always is with a movie and TV set. I guess you expect this big fanfare of like, because it’s ended for you, it’s ended for everyone. But really on the final day and when it’s finished, they’ve got to move on and move to something else. That’s why it felt like being skinned. It was like, “Right. We got to get this off because we’re going to move on and shoot Maisie [Williams] doing something.” So it’s kind of brutal. It’s a brutal experience, especially after nine years. You go, “Oh, well, that’s done.” You just finish, and that’s it.
He also gave props to the crew for showing up day after day (and night after night) to film the grueling battle scenes that have been the highlight of the season so far. “They don’t get the credit as we do,” he said. “It’s important to give them a shout out.” As for what he took home from the set, he managed to snag Jon Snow’s gloves. “I hope one day, one day when everyone’s forgotten about Thrones, I might get to buy my costume back or something.”
Harington, like all the cast members, is now planning for the future. With the exposure he got from Thrones, he can do pretty much anything he wants. At the moment, he’s being careful not to get typecast. “Yeah, I don’t want to try and repeat Jon Snow.” Does that mean we probably won’t see him in any other fantasy-period roles?
You know, it’d have to be the right thing. But you’re an actor to kind of step in and out of many different roles. I don’t want to step back into the same thing.
He’s looking forward to doing something “slightly lighter,” and we can’t blame him. “[Jon Snow is] a very heavy, heavy show, heavy role. So something which is a bit lighter, a bit funnier maybe. Other than that, I don’t really know.”
Also: he can now take roles for clean-shaven people, having sheared off Jon Snow’s legendary facial hair. “My dad’s pretty happy I’ve got rid of that now. He said, ‘I’m glad you got rid of the creepy mustache.’ I don’t know. There’s something about a mustache that I quite enjoyed.”
Harington isn’t the only Game of Thrones cast member with an older interview just coming to light now. The Hollywood Reporter just released this sit-down with Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, also given before the season aired. We can fill in the blanks now!
See you this Sunday at 8:00 p.m. CST for the series finale!
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