The Three-Eyed Raven will be pivotal in Season 8.
With the final season of Game of Thrones set to air this week, viewers can finally say goodbye to those long nights without any action in Westeros because winter is almost here.
Ever since Bran Stark and Samwell Tarly revealed that Jon Snow/Aegon Targaryen is in fact the true heir to the Iron Throne, Game of Thrones fans have been desperate to find out any information about the six episodes in Season 8.
Well, one man that knows everything is Isaac Hempstead-Wright. Granted, he knows everything because he’s one of the few characters that has actually survived this long but in terms of his character, the Three-Eyed Raven is destined to have a role in the wars to come.
With the new Game of Thrones exhibition opening in Belfast, JOE’s self-appointed Maester, Paul Moore, had the chance to chat with Isaac Hempstead-Wright about his time on the show.
Here are Isaac’s views on…
How he deals with fan theories…
A large part of Game of Thrones revolves around fan theories and speculation.
Hell, there are people that absolutely live for that stuff – a quick Google search of ‘Bran is the Night King’ would probably give you millions of articles – but for an actor, we’d imagine that it could be quite head-wrecking. As always, the Three-Eyed Raven knows best.
“Some of them get exhausting when people take them as a hard fact. You know, they’re like ‘Well that must be what’s happening’ and I’m like ‘Calm down’ but to be honest, it’s genuinely exciting that people love the show enough to spend loads of time coming up with these things and pouring over loads of detail to find these tiny, intricate details that may support an outlandish theory. It’s testament to how popular the show is.”
His favourite scenes (the timeloop with Hodor and reuniting with Sam in Winterfell)
If you weren’t an emotional wreck when you discovered Hodor’s doomed fate, you’re colder than a White Walker. To compound matters, Bran’s role in predetermining Hodor’s tragic existence was a gut-punch unlike any other.
The man that protected Bran with every fibre of his being had his life destroyed by the boy that he spent his life protecting.
“That was one of my favourite scenes to do. Season 6 is when Bran really came into his own but I’m going to be really boring and say that Season 8 is where Bran shines the most,” said Hempstead-Wright.
Does this finally mean we’ll see the famous words “you will never walk again, but you will fly.”
The Stark reunion…
Lord knows that we’ve been put through the emotional wringer in Game of Thrones but there are moments when hope is restored and they usually revolve around the surviving members of House Stark being reunited.
Well, after transforming into the Three-Eyed Raven, the character we knew as Bran Stark is no more but with Jon returning to Winterfell, it’s very likely that we’ll get to see Arya, Sansa, Bran, and Jon reunite.
However, Hempstead-Wright hopes that the uncomfortable and understated tone of these reunions continues.
“I thought it was nice that we didn’t do things like ‘Ah, the Starks are back together and it’s all nice, let’s have a dance and everything is happy families.’ I thought it was nice that there’s still a little bit of weirdness to it with Bran and an edge between Sansa and Arya. It made for a much more interesting watch. Weirdly, I’d hardly ever acted with Kit because we only ever did a few scenes in the first season”.
Playing Bran as the Three-Eyed Raven as opposed to the young, innocent boy that travelled beyond The Wall…
In terms of character development, it’s arguable that Bran’s arc has seen the most seismic change imaginable because in may ways, the boy that loved to climb, play, and torment Rickon is dead.
Ok, he’s physically still alive but the Three-Eyed Raven is cold, methodical, and robotic – something that Hempstead-Wright was delighted to play.
“I actually loved it. It was such an interesting challenge because prior to that, I had just been a kid playing a kid, or a teenager playing a teenager. I hadn’t had to transform myself in any massive way. Not many actors get the chance to play a completely different character on the same TV show. In Season 7, getting to play this whole new character – one that’s pivotal – was fun and I relished the challenge. Omniscient characters can really become quite boring because they know everything, so for me, it was about keeping that emotional detachment, weirdness, and mystery to him.”
Life after Thrones…
“It’s a bit mad. It’s only really hit me in the last year or so having finished Season 8, and being free for the first time in as long as I can remember. Now, I’ve just sort of realised ‘Holy fuck! Ive had the weirdest life ever.’ Right now, it’s kind of this terrifying moment where I feel like I’ve lived this whole life and finished a whole career on this show, but in reality, I’m just starting my career! It’s a bit overwhelming but it’s exciting too”.
How he, Maisie Williams, and Sophie Turner ‘stayed normal’ despite having fame early…
In a previous interview, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau (Jaime Lannister) said that a key reason why Game of Thrones has become so popular is because there isn’t a single asshole that works in the production.
“Someone said we’ve had no assholes, which is quite extraordinary, really. You look at a workplace of more than 1,000 people, and there are no assholes,” said the Kingslayer.
A harmonious set is definitely something that Hempstead-Wright appreciated as a young actor. “I’d like to think that the no-asshole rule is definitely there on the show. This is just me saying this but I really haven’t come across anyone on Game of Thrones that’s a nightmare to work with. That has really helped.”
His first day of shooting…
We’ve come a long way since that scene when the Stark children found their direwolf puppies and when it comes to Bran, the pain is made worse because of his warging connection with his direwolf, Summer.
As you may remember, Summer was killed defending Bran when wights and the white walkers attacked the cave of the Three-Eyed Raven. Throughout the show, Bran has faced incredible danger and massive challenges but things could have been very different and it’s all due to the crappy Irish weather!
“My very first day on set was in Tollymore Forest, Down. We were filming the scene where the Stark children find the direwolves. It rained all day. Like, non-stop. Remember that I’ve never had any experience before on a film set. I just remember going back to my hotel and saying to my mum ‘What am I doing, this is so horrible!” but thankfully I stuck it out and it got much better,” joked Hempstead-Wright.
The last day of shooting…
“It was super emotional. I didn’t think that I’d cry and get all teary-eyed, but when I heard ‘It’s a wrap’ I was like ‘Oh my god.’ The thing is, I’m not just going to miss the cast members that I worked alongside with but there are crew members that have known me and my mum since we were 10-years-old. It was genuinely like saying goodbye to a family, or leaving home. It was really sad.”
The theory that if Bran actually listened to his mother, Catelyn, in the first episode and stopped climbing on the walls, Game of Thrones would never have happened…
“Well, maybe that’s what happens! He wakes up and it’s all a big dream”.
Somehow, we don’t think that’s the ending.
Game of Thrones Season 8 airs on Sky Atlantic on Monday 15 April at 02:00 and 21:00. It will also be available on NOW TV.
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