Kit Harington Already Confirmed Why Game Of Thrones Season 8 Could Have Never Been Fixed

5 days ago 13

Kit Harington as Jon Snow in the middle of a blizzard in Game of Thrones

Felipe Rangel is a Superheroes Lead Writer and Reviewer at ScreenRant. He has been writing about movies and TV since 2021, with a focus on superhero projects. Felipe joined ScreenRant in 2022, working across different teams, covering everything from breaking news to features to reviews and more. Since the launch of the Superheroes vertical in 2023, he has focused his efforts on coming up with insightful analyses of Marvel and DC's projects.

Felipe is a writer who is an avid film and TV fan, with superhero movies and series being his biggest passion. He graduated from college in 2019, having studied Journalism. Before college, he spent a month studying at the Oxford English Centre. His superhero knowledge expands to the comics, with his undergraduate thesis being "Politics Reflected In American Comics."

Game of Thrones season 8 was not the finale fans had envisioned throughout the acclaimed show's run, and it seems that despite a clear path for how the project could have been fixed existing, that was never really in the cards. Game of Thrones' final season is one of the most controversial releases in TV history, as it soured fans on the top ten TV shows of all time.

Decisions like Jon Snow not fighting the Night King, Daenerys Targaryen going mad and then being killed by Jon, Bran becoming the new King of Westeros, and more of Game of Thrones season 8's biggest moments did not sit well with the majority of the show's fans. However, the show had to deal with a bigger issue that impacted everything, and it could never have been fixed.

Kit Harington Revealed Why Game Of Thrones Had To End

Jon Snow (Kit Harington) with blood on his face in the Battle of the Bastards on Game of Thrones

Recently, Game of Thrones franchise creator George R. R. Martin, who penned the books the show is based on, revealed there are multiple Game of Thrones sequels in the works. In a way, those projects could help make season 8 better, fixing certain characters' storylines years after the HBO show ended. However, a full-blown season 8 redo is never happening.

Speaking to British GQ in 2024, Jon Snow actor Kit Harington addressed why Game of Thrones needed to end when it did. According to the star, the cast "couldn't have gone on longer" as they were tired after 8 seasons of the fantasy series. That is directly connected to one of the biggest complaints about Game of Thrones season 8, revealing that a fix was never possible.

The Night King in battle in Game of Thrones

From seasons 1 through 6, every new Game of Thrones entry consisted of 10 episodes. That gave ample time for the show to include both major battles and character-focused moments, slowly building out an immersive world, which made the HBO series so successful. However, the episode count dropped for the final two seasons, going down to 7 and 6 episodes, respectively.

That move would lead to one of the biggest problems in Game of Thrones' final season, which is that everything felt incredibly rushed. Daenerys' descent into brutality had been slowly worked on throughout the series, but instead of properly devoting time to her final change and death, Game of Thrones made her a homicidal maniac at the flick of the wrist.

Harington agrees with the criticism, saying, "I understand some people thought it was rushed, and I might agree with them." However, as the actor says, "But I'm not sure there was any alternative," the solution to that problem, which would have been a longer season 8 or perhaps another season or two, was never happening due to the cast's wishes. Game of Thrones' ending was always doomed.