‘Game of Thrones’ Cast Reportedly Shot an Alternate Ending for Final Season

Kristofer Hivju, who played Tormund on Game of Thrones, revealed to the UK newspaper Metro that an alternate ending for the eighth and final season of the Emmy-winning HBO show was filmed “mostly for fun,” but would never be seen by the public.   

“Well, we shot an alternative ending,” Hivju said. “That was mostly for fun but I don’t know if I’m allowed to tell you about that.” Metro reportedly received this confession from Hivju when he and co-stars Gemma Whelan and Isaac Hempstead Wright, who portrayed Yara Greyjoy and Bran Stark, respectively, attended the “Game Of Thrones: A Celebration and Panel” event in London on Monday. 

When pressed for further explanation about this alternate ending, Hivju remained tight-lipped on details, and only reiterated how much fun it was to shoot.

Before your mind wanders to possible alternative scenarios that could’ve been explored at the conclusion of the series, fellow attendee Wright said in May that he had previously been told by Thrones showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss that George R.R. Martin had envisioned two central plot points for Bran, one of which being that he would become king. So there’s that. 

However, Martin wasn’t as forthcoming about the ending of the TV show syncing up with his long-awaited sixth book The Winds of Winter following the airing of the series finale. “How will it all end? I hear people asking,” he wrote. “The same ending as the show? Different? Well… yes. And no. And yes. And no. And yes. And no. And yes.”

What insight Hivju was able to provide was like every other Thrones fan, he had his own theory on how the series should end, which differed from many others. Despite the wide array of directions that the show could’ve reached its conclusion, Benioff and Weiss still found a way to surprise us, even if those surprising turns weren’t well-received. 

“The funny thing is after season seven I had my theories, fans had theirs’, everybody the cast had their theories so there were thousands of theories,” he explained. “To choose one path would be difficult to say but there were many things I didn’t see coming; there was the element of surprise which I liked.”