WARNING: The following contains major spoilers for Season 8 of Game of Thrones.
With every detail of Season 8 of Game of Thrones being kept under wraps, the actors weren't even given scripts in advance. As such, the cast discovered new elements of the story while in production, which included who would end up killing the Night King in "The Battle of Winterfell."
Kit Harington, who plays Jon Snow, was just as stunned as Maisie Williams, who plays Arya Stark, when she learned that her character would be delivering the fatal blow.
"I was surprised, I thought it was gonna be me!” Harington told Entertainment Weekly. "But I like it. It gives Arya's training a purpose to have an end goal. It's much better how she does it the way she does it."
In the episode, Arya saved Bran by hiding out at the Godswood, before leaping out and stabbing the ice lord, shattering him and his zombie army. Many expected Jon to be the person who killed the Night King after a drawn-out rivalry over the last few seasons.
"I think it will frustrate some in the audience that Jon's hunting the Night King and you're expecting this epic fight and it never happens — that's kind of Thrones," he added. "But it's the right thing for the characters. There's also something about it not being the person you expect. The young lady sticks it to the man."
Williams revealed she was also in the dark, and after reading the script, she questioned if it was the right choice.
"It was so unbelievably exciting. But I immediately thought that everybody would hate it; that Arya doesn't deserve it," she said.
"The hardest thing is in any series is when you build up a villain that's so impossible to defeat and then you defeat them," Williams continued. "It has to be intelligently done because otherwise people are like, 'Well, [the villain] couldn't have been that bad when some 100-pound girl comes in and stabs him.' You gotta make it cool. And then I told my boyfriend and he was like, 'Mmm, should be Jon though really, shouldn't it?'"
Eventually, she warmed to the idea thanks to reading the exchange with the witch, Melisandre, about destiny, adding that the entire production team cheered when they shot the scene, which was always guaranteed to catch everyone off-guard and deliver a shock moment the franchise prides itself on.
Airing Sundays at 9 p.m. ET on HBO, Game of Thrones stars Peter Dinklage as Tyrion Lannister, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau as Jaime Lannister, Lena Headey as Cersei Lannister, Emilia Clarke as Daenerys Targaryen, Sophie Turner as Sansa Stark, Maisie Williams as Arya Stark and Kit Harington as Jon Snow.