The final season of Game of Thrones was the most heavily criticized in the series and its reception continues to disappoint the cast of the iconic series. Most recently, actor John Bradley, who played Samwell Tarly, expressed his dismay at how audiences ultimately responded to the show's conclusion.
In an interview with NME, Bradley stated, "We genuinely wanted it to be great. We genuinely thought it was going to be great. We were really proud of it. We weren't arrogant enough to think: 'Oh we'll just put it out there and they'll swallow it'. We only ever wanted people to like it… I was really disappointed."
The actor then touched on the reaction to Season 8, stating, "The fan reaction was so fierce and vociferous, when people think of Game of Thrones, they have a sense of disappointment because they didn't like the finale. I'd like it to be seen as a complete body of work… Those great moments are not going to be forgotten and they shouldn't be dimmed or taken away from because the ending wasn’t to your liking."
The final season of Game of Thrones faced particularly intense criticism with many citing a rushed plot and major inconsistencies in regards to some of the show's most prominent characters. It was made worse when showrunners D.B Weiss and David Benioff revealed their relative inexperience at the Austin Film Festival in 2019. The pair described Game of Thrones as an "expensive film school." When asked why they did not accept help when it came to writing the show, the showrunners stated they "didn't know better."
Some critics and audiences have noted a shift in quality following Season 4 of the hit series, which is where the HBO series caught up with the events of author George R.R. Martin's epic fantasy novels. Martin is currently writing the sixth novel in the Song of Ice and Fire saga, The Winds of Winter. The novel has been in the works since at least 2011 and will be followed by A Dream of Spring, set to conclude the entire story.
But the novels are not the only project in the works. Fans can also look forward to HBO's upcoming House of the Dragon prequel series. The show is set 200 years before the events of Game of Thrones and centers on House Targaryen during the peak of their reign.
Source: NME