These 'Game of Thrones' Stars Have Agreed With Calls to Remake Season 8

To this day, die-hard fans of Game of Thrones campaign online for HBO to remake the series. The prospect is arguably getting less outlandish as time goes on - the network has invested heavily in expanding the franchise, and at the same time it is working on a remake of the Harry Potter series, so it's clear they're open to projects like these. While the cast has generally been more reserved in their commentary, there are three actors who have shown interest in a remake.

Charles Dance may have been the first Thrones star to support the calls for remake in my interview with him back in August of 2020. Dance played Tywin Lannister on the series, so he had been off the show since Season 5 and was only watching as a fan when it wrapped up in 2019. When asked about the viral fan petition to remake the final season, Dance said: "Well if there was a petition, I would sign it."

Charles Dance

Unlike fans, critics and the petition's author, Dance did not place blame for the series' ending, he only explained that he disliked it. He said: "I mean, I saw it. I continued to watch the whole series even after I'd been killed off in the lavatory. Because I just thought it's a fantastic television show, you know? I was very lucky to be part of it. I loved it; there were storylines [where] I wanted to know what was going to happen to these people! I know that the finale satisfied a lot of people. It also disappointed a lot of people, and I'm afraid I am in the latter camp."

It's no secret that many fans and critics blamed showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss for the disappointing ending, and Dance addressed that as well. He said: "I think David and Dan raised the bar when it came to television screenplay writing. They are phenomenal. And for the whole thing to end up as a committee, I just thought, 'Hmm, no.' I would say I was somewhat underwhelmed by."

Nikolaj Coster-Waldau

Dance was pretty blunt in his assessment, while Nikolaj Coster-Waldau was a little more ambiguous. He played the son of Dance's character, Jaime Lannister, and he told Variety : "I almost wanted to donate to that petition. HBO saying, 'You're right, so many people want it, we're going to do it.' I think everyone had their own opinion."

Coster-Waldau seemed to believe that there was no ending that would have truly satisfied the majority of people. He said: "Everyone wanted something specific and different from what they got. It's a combination of - you imagine an ending; but also, I think if you're a hardcore fan, it was really upsetting that it ended. You lived with this for eight seasons. There is still a massive community dedicated to Game of Thrones. I think there was a real fear that was going to go away. It had to end."

For himself, Coster-Waldau said that the ending "was fine. It was great. How do you end that story? Let's talk about this in ten years, then you can talk about it. But now, I think it's a little too recent."

Lena Headey

Lena Headey did not go so far as to comment on the petition, but she did lament the ending in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter last year. When asked if she wanted more for her character Cersei Lannister in the final season, Headey said: "I think all of us did, to be honest, because you start trying to write the story yourself. And [Maisie Williams] and I would fantasize about a Cersei and Arya showdown; that she would come back as Jaime. That was our dream. But they made different choices."

Still, Headey said she did not miss working on the show. She said: "I miss the people - because you fall in love with people, and you create these family units. So that takes a little while to go though. There's a weird grief from those relationships. But I don't miss it. We did it. We put everything into it. It changed everyone's fucking world, and we'll always have it."

HBO Exec Casey Bloys

Finally, the head of HBO, Casey Bloys, responded directly to the petition and the fan outcry in 2019, for what it's worth. He told Entertainment Weekly : "The petition shows a lot of enthusiasm and passion for the show, but it wasn't something we seriously considered. I can't imagine another network would."

That may sound like a hard "no," but fan interest in the remake is idea is resurfacing right now for several reasons. For one thing, House of the Dragon Season 2 made it clear that, while spinoff shows can give us a dose of Westeros as we loved it in the beginning, they can't escape the ending of Game of Thrones . Every whisper of prophecy will tie us straight back to the white walkers, and while some fans enjoy that ( like me ,) many others find it tiresome. A remake could at least do justice to the final battle against the Others, perhaps salvaging the frequent references in the process.

The other main reason for remake interest is fans' waning faith that author George R.R. Martin will finish his books. Martin admitted candidly in a recent blog post that his TV projects and other obligations kept him from making significant progress on The Winds of Winter over the last year, and with 13 years since the last book release, even the most optimistic readers are beginning to fear he will never get his momentum back. If the novels aren't going to get their ending, some fans reason that a suped-up TV finale might be the best they can hope for.

Game of Thrones is streaming now on Max, along with House of the Dragon. A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms: The Hedge Knight premieres in 2025. Martin's books are available now in print, digital and audiobook formats.