Vladimir Furdik has been the Night King since season 6, but the man who played the leader of the army of the dead before that — Richard Brake — has some things to say about his former character’s death.

“I did watch the end of the season,” Brake told Consequence of Sound. “I didn’t know ahead of time what was gonna happen, but I love the way my character ended up dying because Arya was always my favorite. I wasn’t surprised. I thought it was a brilliant development, actually.”

Some fans might not even know the Night King had two actors — and it’s not like Thrones hadn’t replaced actors in roles before, like the Mountain and Tommen Baratheon among others — and Brake explains why he left the show.

It was ultimately a scheduling issue. I was doing another series — it was Kurt Sutter’s series The Bastard Executioner — which, unfortunately, didn’t do very well. But, it’s very difficult to schedule around Game of Thrones. Vlad [Furdik] is wonderful, who took over the role [of the Night King], and he’s a stuntman primarily, so it kind of made some sense anyway for them to do that, so that was ultimately the reason

If you think Brake regrets his decision to leave Game of Thrones, then you’d be wrong. “A lot of people ask, ‘Are you sad about that?’ I’m not even remotely sad because I would’ve never been able to do all this work that I’ve done subsequently,” he said. “And I’m almost certain I wouldn’t have been able to do 3 From Hell, and I’m pretty sure I couldn’t have done 31.”

So, there’s quite a few things I would never have wanted to miss had I continued the role. And I always say that I’m lucky I got to be in one of my favorite episodes, “Hard Home”, so that was a real thing.

Brake’s last appearance on Game of Thrones was in season 5’s “Hardhome,” and at least he had the opportunity to make a lasting impact on the show. In fact, his epic walk down to the water and raising his hands that raised the dead in Hardhome will probably be one of the most memorable moments from the show.

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