John Bradley on Game of Thrones Season 8: “We genuinely wanted it to be great!”

Game of Thrones Season 8 wasn’t everyone’s cup of tea. The season finale divided the fan base into two. One was satisfied with the ending, the other demanded a season remake. Some blamed the absence of George R. R. Martin’s next instalment of books. While some blamed the showrunners’ piqued interest to launch a Star Wars feature film trilogy with Disney’s Lucasfilm. Even the show’s alum Emilia Clarke gets why fans were f**king p***ed about the final episode. Her co-star, John Bradley (Samwell Tarly), has often defended the finale, and says making it a controversial one was never in their minds.

In a recent interview with NME, Bradley said, “We were never going to please everybody. People had invested too much. We genuinely wanted it to be great. We genuinely thought it was going to be great. We were really proud of it. We weren’t arrogant enough to think: ‘Oh we’ll just put it out there and they’ll swallow it’. We only ever wanted people to like it… I was really disappointed.”

He continued, “The fan reaction was so fierce and vociferous, when people think of Game Of Thrones, they have a sense of disappointment because they didn’t like the finale. I’d like it to be seen as a complete body of work… Those great moments are not going to be forgotten and they shouldn’t be dimmed or taken away from because the ending wasn’t to your liking.”

Do you think John Bradley’s reaction to Season 8 criticism is valid? Tell us in the comments below!