‘Game of Thrones’ Actor Conleth Hill Grew ‘Frustrated’ With Show’s ‘Rushed’ Final Season and Botched Character Arc: ‘I Was Inconsolable’
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Conleth Hill told the The Times UK in a recent interview that he was “inconsolable” when he found out his character, Varys, was being killed off “Game of Thrones.” Hill was a regular face on the HBO fantasy series since its first season until Varys was burned to death by a dragon in the final season’s penultimate episode. By that point, Hill admitted, he had grown “frustrated” with the series for not staying true to his character’s all-knowing ways.
“I thought I’d done something wrong,” Hill said. “Right up until the last two series, I had no complaints at all. I just felt frustrated with the last couple of series because Varys wasn’t the all-knowing character he had been. I think the writers wanted to do one thing to end it and the studio HBO wanted to do another. I felt that last series was a bit rushed. I was inconsolable, but now I’m fine about it.”
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Many “Game of Thrones” fans agree with Hill that the show’s eighth and final season felt rushed. The trimmed episode count (it consisted of six episodes compared to the usual 10) truncated many character arcs, most infamously that of Daenerys Targaryen (Emilia Clarke). The popular character took a villainous heel turn in the final season, but she didn’t get enough screen time to make such a twist feel believable.
“I get why people are pissed. I totally get it,” Clarke told MTV in 2021 about the backlash over the finale. “But, me being the actor, you can’t do justice to the character that you poured your blood, sweat, and tears into for a decade without getting on the same page. So like, I’m not just going to be there being like, ‘Fine, I’ll do the scene, whatever. I’m so pissed.’ You have to turn up.”
Other actors defended their character arcs. Kit Harington’s Jon Snow ended the series once again banished to the North, which he told USA Today was a perfect conclusion for Snow.
“I loved it. When I read it, that bit really made me cry,” Harington said. “What really made me cry was on the paper: ‘End of “Game of Thrones.”‘ It felt like he was set free. It was a really sweet ending. As much as he had done a horrible thing [in killing Daenerys], as much as he had felt that pain, the actual ending for him was finally being released.”
“Game of Thrones” is streaming in its entirety on Max.
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