‘Game of Thrones’: Cast Reveals How Their Characters Should Die

The cast of Game of Thrones are fans of the series themselves, and they have some interesting predictions of how things will shake out in the final season.

Game of Thrones is a show mired in secrecy. HBO and the showrunners have worked hard to avoid spoilers for Season 8, and that has included keeping the cast from divulging anything of note in interviews.

Still, as fans of the show, the cast members cannot help but express their own strong feelings about the series. The actors who embody the characters we know and love have their own opinions on if, how and when they should meet their on-screen deaths. In a new interview with Entertainment Tonight, they revealed how each of them thought that their characters should die, hypothetically.

Obviously, the actors have little sway over where the story really goes, and they would not give away any major plot points so close to the season premiere. Still, their insights can give us a bit to go on, or at least some ideas to hold us over as we anxiously await the eighth and final season.

Here is how the Game of Thrones cast would like to see their characters die in the Season 8.

Sansa Stark – Sophie Turner

Sophie Turner, the actress behind Sansa Stark, the new Lady of Winterfell, said she would want her death to be a dramatic affair. Rather than a single climactic moment, she’d like her character to get a whole episode’s worth of death.

“Something that really like drags out over a full episode,” she said. “The only thing I can think of is poisoning. That’s a long one. Or just like a slow stabbing. Just something that will last a long time so I can milk it.”

Cersei Lannister – Lena Headey

“I often think about it, weirdly… Maybe perhaps, dying at Arya’s sword would be a good way,” said Lena Headey of the death of Cersei Lannister. In point of fact, Cersei came close to dying at Arya’s hand last season, and she might have if it weren’t for the intervention of Arya’s old friend Hot Pie.

Arya Stark – Maisie Williams

Maisie Williams, who plays the faceless assassin Arya Stark, joked as if gruesome on-screen deaths were a competition on the series. She said that, if she had to go, she’d at least want to have the “best death,” calling out some of the other top contenders.

“I think it would have to top the lot,” she said. “Like, in years to come, I hope there’s like a show where it’s like, ‘The Top Best Deaths on Game of Thrones,’ so it would have to be number one. So far, for me, the number one death is the melting gold on Viserys [Targaryen’s] face, which was early on. And so I think it would have to be something along those lines. Something maybe like glass melting on her face. Like, over all of her face and then you’ll still be able to see her frozen, dead expression.”

Daenerys Targaryen – Emilia Clarke

As much as it seems like Daenerys Targaryen has the Iron Throne within her grasp, actress Emilia Clark is not convinced. She said that she imagines one horrifying scenario where her character would die just before taking her rightful place as ruler.

“So this is something I’ve thought about, and I think it’d be really funny if she just, like, got really close to the Iron Throne and then it exploded,” she said. “I think that would be hilarious! I think it would be good.”

Bran Stark – Isaac Hempstead Wright

Perhaps reflecting some of his character’s survivor’s guilt, Isaac Hempstead Wright said that he would want to act out a grisly death for Bran Stark. The paraplegic green-seer has somehow survived the frozen wilderness, great battles and even a White Walker assault, yet Wright thinks the spectre of death should catch up to him.

“I want something really gruesome – but it’s really hard to top the producers. They come up with the most creative deaths. I’d like his intestines ripped out and he should be strangled with them,” he said.

Jaime Lannister – Nikolaj Coster-Waldau

Meanwhile, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, of all people, was optimistic about the fate of Jaime Lannister. The actor saw a mild death for his character, and not any time soon.

“That’s a good question. Just… of old age,” he said.

The Valonqar

Regardless of what the actors want, there is some foreshadowing in place to indicate a few major character deaths. Chief among them is that of Cersei, who got a prophecy from a woods witch named Maggy the Frog when she was young.

In the books, Maggy warned Cersei that “the valonqar shall wrap his hands around your pale white throat and choke the life from you.”

Valonqar is the high Valyrian word for “younger brother,” which could refer to either Tyrion or Cersei’s younger twin Jaime. However, in the show the “Valonqar” line is notably absent from Maggy’s prophecy, so that part might not play out on the screen.

Last Woman Standing?

Finally, Williams may have given fans a big hint about the fate of Arya Stark with her Instagram post about her final day of filming. As she left set, Williams posted a photo of her sneakers spattered with fake blood, bidding the production farewell one last time.

Williams included the hashtags “last woman standing” and “barely” in her post, which some fans are taking at face value. If anyone can survive the wars to come, it may be Arya, and she could be the last living character after the White Walkers have their say.

Game of Thrones Season 8 premieres on Sunday, April 14 at 9 p.m. ET on HBO.