How Kit Harington Really Feels About Game Of Thrones Season 8

The overwhelming imprint of “Game of Thrones” on the public consciousness, coupled with its somewhat rushed, unsatisfactory series finale, might have left a Westeros-shaped void within our hearts. The ongoing “House of the Dragon” was quick to remedy that ache — albeit with a much more contained story featuring the Targaryens in the spotlight — but talks about other “Thrones” spinoffs promised to keep the epic saga going. Among them was “Snow,” which would have paved the path for the return of Jon Snow and his adventures beyond The Wall, with Kit Harington reprising the role. However, this spin-off was canceled earlier this year, due to a lack of concrete narrative direction that would justify the return of a character we diligently followed (and rooted for) over eight seasons.

In an interview with GQ, Harington spoke about the canceled spin-off, explaining how HBO approached him for the role and he was initially unsure about embarking on a fresh journey for the character. However, there was a kernel of intrigue as to whether a meaningful story could be told about a soldier battling unforgettable trauma:

“My first reaction was no. And then I thought there could be an interesting and important story about the soldier after the war. I felt that there might be something left to say and a story left to tell in a pretty limited way. We spent a couple of years back and forth developing it. And it just didn’t … nothing got us excited enough.”

Harington backed out after realizing that developing something that didn’t excite everyone involved was a futile endeavor and that he wanted to move beyond his career-defining role as Jon Snow by trying something new. But how does Harington feel about the final season of “Game of Thrones,” especially that divisive finale?

Harington spoke at length about the “baggage” that came with embodying Jon Snow for such an extended amount of time, and how the role will “always be just such a significant factor” in his life and career. The actor underlines exhaustion as one of the factors that might have tinted the flavor of the final season while acknowledging that some choices in the finale “didn’t quite work” despite being “interesting”:

“I think if there was any fault with the end of ‘Thrones,’ is that we were all so f***ing tired, we couldn’t have gone on longer. And so I understand some people thought it was rushed and I might agree with them. But I’m not sure there was any alternative. I look at pictures of me in that final season and I look exhausted. I look spent. I didn’t have another season in me … Everyone is entitled to their opinion [about the finale]. I think there were mistakes made, story-wise, towards the end maybe. I think there were some interesting choices that didn’t quite work.”

Creative burnout can be pretty detrimental to the direction of an evolving story, but the controversial nature of the “Game of Thrones” series finale does seem to stem from a fundamental mishandling of long-established characters, and how their fates were wrapped up. Nevertheless, the legacy and influence of “Thrones” are deeply entrenched, and the franchise might benefit from adapting unexplored stories from the rich, abundant source material instead of banking on characters we are, perhaps, too intimately familiar with.

Harington also emphasized the “need to divorce completely from this previous thing [his turn as Jon Snow], which was “the biggest, most important piece of work” he did, while moving on to exciting projects that will usher fresher creative challenges.