It’s a family. But the kind of family you tell your psychiatrist about.

Jack Gleeson (Joffrey Baratheon)

Season 6 may only have ended five weeks ago, but the audience at London Film and Comic Con’s Game of Thrones panel were already desperate for spoilers. In attendance at the July 30th panel were Daniel Portman (Podrick Payne), Kristian Nairn (Hodor), Sam Coleman (Young Hodor), Kae Alexander (Leaf), Anton Lesser (Qyburn), Jack Gleeson (Joffrey), Ellie Kendrick (Meera) and Faye Marsay (The Waif). I went along for the ride to hear what the cast had to say about their characters, fan theories, and the current ruler of the Seven Kingdoms.





No Spoilers

It didn’t take long before the cast members were asked to weigh in on which character they believe will die next. Daniel Portman (Podrick) declined to make a prediction, and explained, “I don’t want to guess anything because right now I genuinely don’t know, but I could find out six months down the line that I’d accidentally given away a major spoiler, so I’ll pass.” The rest of the panel collectively agreed, although Kristian Nairn (Hodor) suggested that he’d like to see Jon Snow die again.

Ellie Kendrick (Meera) weighed in on the cast’s lack of knowledge. “I don’t even know what’s going to happen to my character. The first thing you do when you get your scripts is leaf through, thinking, ‘do I die, do I die, do I die?’” Nairn seconded, with an interesting story about how he found out about Hodor’s demise.

We only get the scripts for the episodes we’re actually in, and I actually found out about my death from another character. I jokingly said to Finn (Jones), ‘So do I make it?’ and that’s how I found out, so it kind of sucked.

As seems to be the norm with any Thrones panel, the actors were also asked who they wanted to see on the Iron Throne. Sam Coleman (Young Hodor) opted for a democracy with Podrick serving as Prime Minister, a suggestion echoed at once by Jack Gleeson. Kae Alexander (Leaf) and Faye Marsay (the Waif) chose Arya Stark as their preferred monarch, Kendrick wanted to see all of the remaining Stark children ruling together, and Nairn suggested Brienne of Tarth. “It’d be nice to see Westeros have a ruler with some integrity,” he explained, while Daniel Portman fist-pumped in agreement.

The King Returns

Jack Gleeson earned one of the biggest cheers of the day, and quite a large chunk of the audience questions. They ranged in topic from Joffrey’s abilities as a ruler (“He has the charisma to rule, but not the ability.”) to his opinion of Ramsay (“I was disappointed with Ramsay taking over as the most evil character in the show. I wanted to be the most evil character, and I don’t like people being more evil than me, so I’m a bit jealous of him.”). Having previously confirmed his intention to retire from acting and focus on academia, Gleeson now appears to have changed his mind…somewhat. When asked if he would ever consider a return to the business, here’s what he said:

I actually don’t know. I’ve been doing some plays with friends back home in Dublin with a theatre company, some sketch comedy with puppets, sci-fi and fantasy adventure stories, that kind of thing. That’s what I’m enjoying doing at the moment, but the James Bond producers keep calling and it actually gets boring after a while, being constantly in demand for James Bond. We’ll see. Maybe they’ll twist my arm.

Hodor meets Hodor

Why spoilers? WHY?

Sam Coleman, who had not met Kristian Nairn until the day of the panel, shared his thoughts on the role of young Hodor and revealed that he wasn’t told who he was playing until the last moment.

I thought I was playing a stable boy, an extra’s job. Then I thought, ‘the money’s quite good for an extra’s job, what’s going on here? Oh, young Hodor, wow, crikey.’ It was a real privilege to take on the last moments of this legend right here.

As for Nairn himself, he fended off suggestion that Hodor would soon return among the army of the dead.

Would anyone be able to tell the difference between him and a zombie corpse? I wouldn’t think so. I think it’s been the perfect death. I think he got the exit that he deserved, so I couldn’t see him come back as a zombie corpse, but I’m up for it. I want to see zombie Hodor vs zombie Mountain.

Qyburn’s Hidden Agenda

Veteran actor Anton Lesser was asked if he thought that Qyburn’s unwavering loyalty to the newly-crowned Cersei was genuine or entirely self-serving. “I don’t know,” he admitted.

I like the fact that it’s equivocal, that it’s ambiguous. I think there’s got to be an element of complete self-serving survival. Most of those characters have to align with whoever is going to allow them to survive, so that’s a huge element, but at what point does that become the dominant, motivating force? We’ll see. I think there’s a genuine loyalty to her, for now.

I was lucky enough to speak to Lesser following the panel. He agreed that Qyburn’s experiments could be considered the show’s reflection of the origins of modern medicine, and that he might not be as evil as he appears at face value. “But then, he gives sweets to children to make them kill people. He’s interesting. I hope he gets more to do.”

Conspiracy Theories

Asked to weigh in on the weirdest fan or ship theories they’d heard about their characters, Ellie Kendrick debunked the notion that Meera and Jon Snow are siblings. “I think it’s just because we’ve both got curly hair,” she said. “If you’ve read the books, they’re not really that similar.” Citing the books once again, Kendrick named Bran and Meera’s age difference as the reason why a Bran/Meera pairing doesn’t appeal to her, while Daniel Portman implored the audience to stop shipping Podrick and Brienne of Tarth. “A lot of people seem to think that he’s going to get it all out and that she’ll be really impressed,” he said, to laughs from the crowd. “There is absolutely no chance that it’s going to happen.”

Kristian Nairn discussed a now-dead theory about his character. “There was one that actually made it to print, that people thought Hodor was actually a horse. I found it quite offensive, actually. That he had swapped his consciousness with a white pony.” Faye Marsay, smiling more in one hour than the Waif smiled in two seasons, denied another popular fan theory about Arya Stark. “I’ve heard that me and Arya are the same person, like Fight Club. That was pretty intense. Really hilarious and creative, but obviously not true.”

Jack Gleeson also had a serious matter to discuss. “There was a really weird conspiracy going around that Jaime and Cersei are actually my true parents. I don’t know. People come up with the craziest stuff. They must be really bored.”

Finale Reactions

“I thought that it was better than anything I had ever seen on any screen,” said Anton Lesser, describing his reaction to that scene in the Season 6 finale. “The fantastic craft of all of the people involved makes for something that was on a level unsurpassed. How do you follow that? I’m quite intrigued to see how it will be followed.”

Daniel Portman echoed that sentiment. “It was really, really strong. Music was great, acting was great, effects were great, script was great. Did you expect anything else? They always have great series endings and that was the best series, so it deserved the best finale.”

Jack Gleeson’s reaction was summed up in one word, “Wowza,” while Kristian Nairn delighted in Cersei’s dramatic power grab. “I loved watching Cersei’s transformation into a Disney witch. She’s one of my favourite characters. I can’t wait to see how much more cartoon evil she can be.”

Cersei’s Fate

The cast were asked to theorize about where Cersei is going to go in Season 7, having divested herself of her children and most of the Tyrells. “To hell,” Ellie Kendrick declared, to the delight of the crowd. Lesser offered his two cents. “I don’t actually care what happens to her as long as I survive. If she goes somewhere nice, then I’ll go with her. If she goes to hell, I’ll probably decline.”

Nairn’s hopes for Cersei were a little more detailed. “As much as I love her, I’d think she’s probably going to be squashed beneath a hoard of hooves and beating dragon wings, and maybe some ice as well.”

The Waifinator

To the amusement of the audience, Faye Marsay was asked if she had taken inspiration from James Cameron’s The Terminator for her chase scene with Maisie Williams in “No One.” As it ends up, she did…sort of.

I was mid-scene doing the run and I realized that I was running like the Terminator, so I did a little grin and thought, ‘I’ll keep that’. So I didn’t go into it thinking that the scene needed some Terminator action, but mid-scene I realized that it worked. Mean face, arm action, smashed it.

Marsay also recalled being so tired after the shoot that she returned to the hotel and fell asleep with her face in a plate of salmon. “I only realized when I was walking to the shower. I ate some salmon off my face while I was showering, it was pretty nice.”

Role-swapping

“I would like to play Diana Rigg’s character, the Queen of Thorns,” said Daniel Portman when asked what other character he’d like to play. “She sits around and eats cake, is sassy, films in really nice locations, and gets to wear a really excellent headdress.”

Both Hodors had clearly put some thought into which other characters they’d like to play. “Having played a character with a very limited vocabulary,” said Nairn. “I’d like to take on a role that is completely the opposite, whose words were the most important thing, and I think that would be Varys.” Perhaps because he was given more than one word of dialogue during his time on the show, Coleman’s answer was quite different. “I’d quite like to play Robert Baratheon. Women, wine… I’m vegan so I’d probably have to skip on the hunting, but I wouldn’t have to exercise, which is great.”

Kae Alexander decided that Ramsay would be a fun choice, Anton Lesser chose Cersei, Kendrick fancies playing a dragon, and Marsay picked her character’s mentor, Jaqen H’ghar, “So I could mooch about in a robe and be mysterious.”

Jack Gleeson also had a choice role in mind. “I used to want to play Hodor because there aren’t a lot of lines to remember and he’s such a cool character, but I can’t be that anymore, so I’ll be Hodor’s ghost… when he comes back in season seven.”