Any TV series is going to struggle to make everyone happy during its final season, but Game of Thrones' last batch of episodes were almost universally despised (so much so, that many fans campaigned for the entire thing to be remade).
The fates of several characters upset longtime fans and Bran Stark ending up on the Iron Throne...well, the less said about that, the better.
In a new interview with GQ, Jon Snow actor Kit Harington acknowledged the frustration and disappointment people had with season 8, admitting he doesn't necessarily disagree with the criticisms. However, it seems he and everyone else were ready to move on.
"I think if there was any fault with the end of ‘Thrones,’ is that we were all so f*cking tired, we couldn’t have gone on longer," the actor admitted. "And so I understand some people thought it was rushed and I might agree with them. But I’m not sure there was any alternative. I look at pictures of me in that final season and I look exhausted. I look spent. I didn’t have another season in me."
Adding that "everyone is entitled to their opinion" when it comes to how the show ended (Jon killed Daenerys Targaryen and was subsequently sent back to the Wall where we last saw him, Ghost, and the Wildlings head into the Haunted Forest together), Harington also commented on his own issues with how things played out.
"I think there were mistakes made, story-wise, towards the end maybe," he said. "I think there were some interesting choices that didn’t quite work."
It looked like there was the possibility of redemption for Jon in a planned sequel series that had been in development at HBO with the working title Snow. We've since learned that it's been scrapped, though now for lack of trying according to Harington.
"What I can tell you is it was HBO that came to me and said, ‘Would you consider this?’ My first reaction was no," he revealed. "And then I thought there could be an interesting and important story about the soldier after the war. I felt that there might be something left to say and a story left to tell in a pretty limited way."
"We spent a couple of years back and forth developing it," Harington continued. "And it just didn’t...nothing got us excited enough. In the end, I kind of backed out and said, ‘I think if we push this any further and keep developing it we could end up with something that’s not good. And that’s the last thing we all want.'"
With that, his time in Westeros has ended but he boarded another major franchise in 2021 with Marvel Studios' Eternals. Despite early plans for him to return as Dane Whitman in Blade, the character hasn't been seen since.
"I'm not gonna pretend I took that [role] because it was different and interesting. If Marvel calls, you gotta do it," he joked, sharing no new updates on his MCU future.
Are you disappointed with Snow not moving forward?