Kit Harington was “genuinely angered” by fan petition to rewrite final ‘Game of Thrones’ series
Kit Harington has opened up on the negative response to the final series of Game of Thrones, saying he was “genuinely angry” at a fan petition to rewrite it.
The actor was speaking in a new interview with The New York Times when he reflected back on his iconic character of Jon Snow in the HBO smash hit fantasy series, which he played between 2011 and 2019.
However, the climax of Game of Thrones came at a difficult juncture in Harington’s personal life, when he was struggling with addiction issues and burnout after the show’s extensive filming process.
As such, he recalled leaving his rehab programme, during which the eighth and final series of the show had aired, to discover the negative fan reaction to the ending.
Over two million people were so unhappy with the climax of Game of Thrones that they signed a petition for the final series to be rewritten with “competent writers”, which Harington took offence to on behalf of writers David Benioff and DB Weiss.
“That genuinely angered me,” Harington recalled, being aware of the efforts of the show’s creatives. “Like, how dare you? Sorry, that’s just how I feel. I think it was a level of idiocy that can only come about through social media.”
The series was heavily criticised at the time of its release in all aspects of its script writing to cinematography, but HBO executives confirmed that they never “seriously considered” bending to fan demands for a rewrite.
Its CEO Daniel Bloys, who was then the programming chief, said in 2019: “The petition shows a lot of enthusiasm and passion for the show, but it wasn’t something that we seriously considered.”
Moving forward to now, Harington is set to star in another HBO hit, reprising his role as Sir Henry Muck in the fourth series of Industry, which aired its first episode on January 11th.
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