‘Game of Thrones’ Cast Calls Final Season Backlash ‘Media-Led Hate Campaign’

Will Thorne

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What is life like now after “Game of Thrones?”

That’s the question that fans have been asking themselves and that cast members had to answer at the show’s final Comic-Con panel. But first, Conleth Hill, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau and several others cleared the air and addressed the perceived negative response to the final season.

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“I don’t regret starting the petition,” Hill joked, referencing the petition signed by hundreds of thousands of fans demanding that HBO remake the final season. “We’re very grateful for your fandom over the years and I think this is the reality rather than a media-led hate campaign.”

Coster-Waldau then weighed in saying there was no way the show could please everyone with its ending.

“It comes to an end it’s gonna piss you off no matter what because it’s the end,” he said. “If you hated the ending, if you loved the ending, that’s great, just don’t call people names.”

The actor also defended the ending to Jaime’s storyline, which concluded under a pile of Iron Keep rubble.

“I thought it was perfect for him to end in the arms of Cersei, it made sense to me, that’s just my opinion,” he said as a couple of fans in the audience expressed their muted disagreement.

Each member of the cast had a cheeky coffee cup waiting for them at their seats, a witty reference to the cup which was mistakenly left on set during the final season and was spotted by every single person who watched the show.

Headlined by the hero of Winterfell herself Maisie Williams, the panel was an hour-long trip down memory lane, with the cast reminiscing about what they stole from the set, their favorite lines, what they’ll miss most about being on “Thrones,” and speculating as to what’s next for each character.

“I’m sure she’s having a wonderful time,” Williams said of Arya’s westward adventures. “She’s like Dora the explorer with her new bob.”

While Isaac Hempstead-Wright commented that Westeros under Bran’s kingship is hardly likely to be “a barrel of laughs.”

“To all intent and purposes, Westeros is now a surveillance state with Bran being aware of all that people are doing,” he said.

Earlier in the panel, Liam Cunningham made a brief quip about the prequel series which is currently in the works and is set 10,000 years prior to the events of “Game of Thrones.”

“I think the spinoff should be ‘Better Call Davos,’ it’s a thousand dollar idea,” Cunningham joked.

Each cast member took it in turn to reveal their favorite line from the show. Coster-Waldau chose the iconic “Hold the door,” Williams opted for her own badass moment with “Not today,” and Jacob Anderson, perhaps predictably, opted for “Valar Morghulis” as his favorite.

Originally, the cast were supposed to be joined by showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, however, the duo pulled out just two days before the panel due to “production and schedule conflicts.”

The panel began with a lengthy clip which put together the best moments from the series. From Bran being pushed out of a window, to Ned Stark’s beheading, to the Battle of the Bastards, to everyone going their separate ways in the very final episode, the clip and the panel proved to be emotional, fitting farewells to one of the most watched, most loved shows of the last decade.

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