‘Game of Thrones’ Star Nikolaj Coster-Waldau on Saying Farewell to Cersei and the Show

Game of Thrones‘s eighth and final season won’t air on HBO until next year, and fans are counting down the days until they can finally discover the fates of those left standing in Westeros.

In an interview with The Huffington Post, actor Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, who plays Jaime Lannister, revealed that he does know how the show ends, though of course, can’t give anything away.

“I wrote the writers when I finished reading and just said, ‘I don’t think you could’ve done a better job at finishing this story,’” he recalled. “To me, it was very satisfying but also very surprising and all the things that I was hoping for. It still made sense. It wasn’t like one of those where the killer is suddenly revealed in the last act and you go, ‘Oh! I didn’t see that coming.’ Here, they’ve done a really, really good job.”

The end of Season 7 saw Jaime finally stand up to sister Cersei (Lena Headey), leaving her to head north despite the fact that she may or may not be pregnant with a child that may of may not be his.

“Those things are 100 percent connected,” Coster-Waldau said of his character’s leaving and Cersei’s possible pregnancy. “That’s also what he told her, he says, ‘What’s the point? If we don’t defeat this threat, there is no future for our child.’ I think he’s doing it for the right reasons, he gave his word, but also it’s the future of mankind and the future of him and Cersei that’s at stake.”

As for Jaime’s time on the road, Coster-Waldau seemed to indicate that it wouldn’t be all smooth sailing for the character.

“He is heading north,” the actor noted. “I don’t think you can assume that he’s going to make it up there, but who knows. For sure, we see him head north. He might be eaten by dragons, you never know. Or he might just stumble, things happen. Or he might find the love of his life and suddenly he’s like, ‘God, this is it. No more.’”

Coster-Waldau added that Jaime will also be traveling for some time.

“He’s on the road for a while,” he said. “Wherever he is going it takes some time, so his hair grows.”

The actor, who has been on the show since it began in 2011, shared that saying goodbye was “a little bit emotional at the very, very end.”

“Throughout the season we had a lot of teary goodbyes and farewell dinners,” he recalled. “When my turn came around, I really didn’t think it was going to phase me, but I have to admit that right when they said, ‘This is a series wrap for Nikolaj,’ there might have been a tiny bit of moisture in the air, just around my eyes. But that was it, that was it.”

Production on Season 8 wrapped in July, and it seems it might have been for the best that the season was the show’s last.

“I think if it hadn’t have been the last season, people would’ve just collapsed,” Coster-Waldau noted. “We wouldn’t have made it. I mean, at one point the crew had 52 nights in one go in Northern Ireland. Just unheard of.”

Photo Credit: HBO