Hey, so, remember how Game of Thrones announced the premiere date of the new season via a faulty Facebook Live stream, a giant block of slowly melting ice, and flamethrowers?
Did you think that maybe, just maybe that was a little bit over the top? Or did you just think it was outright stupid? Well, regardless of where you fall on that spectrum, you probably have something in common with the show’s producers.
That’s according to one of the show’s stars, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, who coincidentally was also not a fan of how things unfolded, according to this interview with The Daily Beast:
I spoke to Dan [Weiss] and David [Benioff] about that and they were like, “Oh god… That’s embarrassing.” Everyone was like, “What’s going to happen?” “What’s going to happen?!” “It’s melting!” “It crashed!” “Oh my god!” It’s like, just walk away… just walk away. It’s just a date!
It really was just a date. Whenever basic announcements are delayed for manufactured drama, it’s going to go poorly. There’s zero upside to that strategy. People are either going to be pissed, or disappointed, or indifferent. No one is happier. It’s just totally screwing with your most diehard fans.
But hey, who am I kidding, it’s Game of Thrones. It’s what this show does best.
Coster-Waldau actually addressed that line of thinking:
You know, I was actually thinking, “Is there going to be a backlash and people will think, ‘Fuck you guys for that!’” but that’s really happened with every time the show kills off a major character: Never again! Fuck you! I’m never going to watch this show! and, you know, they keep coming back.
