Game of Thrones actor Nikolaj Coster-Waldau (aka Jaime Lannister) was joined by fellow Westeros citizens Jerome Flynn (Bronn), Hannah Murray (Gilly) and Miltos Yerolemou (Syrio Forel) at Con of Thrones in Nashville over the weekend as they continue to do a victory lap from its eighth and final season (which no doubt will culminate this weekend at Comic-Con). When asked about the final season and the backlash it received, he had a couple of thoughts.

Miltos Yerolemou, Hannah Murray, Jerome Flynn and Nikolaj Coster-Waldau at

Con of Thrones in Nashville Shutterstock

“This happens every season,” he pointed out during the panel. “We’re so lucky to be part of a show where people … care so much about it that you also get upset when it doesn’t go the way you want it to. And that’s fantastic, and I love it, and I love that there was an online petition to have it rewritten.”

The popular series adapted from the books of George R. R. Martin currently wears the Emmy crown for Best Drama (and is vying for another nomination tomorrow) and he went on to talk about how the fan ire and petitions to rewrite the final season affected the cast and creators David Benioff and D.B. Weiss.

“The only thing I’ll say is that for anyone to imagine or to think that the two creators of this show are not the most passionate, the greatest, the most invested of all, and to for a second think that they didn’t spend the last 10 years thinking about how they were gonna end it, is kinda silly,” he said. “And also know that they too read the comments, and even though you sit on your own and go, ‘F*cking stupid writers! Assholes ’ … they really, like everyone on Game of Thrones … and there are thousands, we worked our asses off to make the best show we could for the ending.”

Coster-Waldau isn’t the first Game of Thrones actor to express his feelings about the Season 8 backlash. Sophie Turner, who played Sansa Stark, told The New York Times she wasn’t surprised by the backlash and called the petition disrespectful, while HBO programming president Casey Bloys shared Turner’s sentiment about the fan reactions, saying, “I don’t think there is any way that all fans would’ve been happy.”

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