‘Game of Thrones’ Star Kit Harrington Breaks Silence Over Show’s ‘Controversy’

If you paid any attention to the Game of Thrones final season, controversy was basically the storyline that followed each episode. While the series as a whole will go down as one of the most dynamic television shows in history and among the most decorated when it comes to awards, the last season didn’t come without its fair share of complaints.

Even the stars of the show were aware of what was going on with its fan base. One guy who didn’t pay too much attention to it, though, was Kit Harrington. He previously stated he had yet to watch the final season and reiterated that stance again after he and his Game of Thrones cast were asked about it after this past weekend’s Emmy Awards.

“Controversy… I still haven’t seen the show, so that’s how I dealt with that controversy,” Harrington said. “I haven’t seen the final season, but I know what it took to shoot it, and it was hard, and everyone put their love and effort into it.”

Harrington, who starred on the show from its beginning as Jon Snow, didn’t follow any of the outside chatter from the show’s viewers took anything away from what he and his castmates achieved.

After all, Game of Thrones took the Emmy for outstanding drama series among other awards. The show was nominated for a whopping 32 awards going into the evening.

“Controversy for us—we knew what we were doing was right story-wise, and we knew that it was right for the characters because we lived with them for 10 years,” he noted. “Controversy for us—didn’t really affect us.”

Game of Thrones may be over, but the story is far from over when it comes to HBO. The network is preparing to launch up to two prequels that will add even more background on the Seven Kingdoms. There’s also more prequels in the work that could bump that number up.

None of the future spinoffs, though, will focus on the cast of characters that set this franchise in motion.

“Part of it is, I do want this show this Game of Thrones, Dan and David’s show to be its own thing,” said HBO programming president, Casey Bloys, in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter. “I don’t want to take characters from this world that they did beautifully and put them off into another world with someone else creating it. I want to let it be the artistic piece they’ve got.

“That’s one of the reasons why I’m not trying to do the same show over. George has a massive, massive world; there are so many ways in. That’s why we’re trying to do things that feel distinct — and to not try and redo the same show. That’s probably one of the reasons why, right now, a sequel or picking up any of the other characters doesn’t make sense for us.”