Game of Thrones season 8 originally planned for this dead character to survive

Photo credit: Helen Sloan - HBO
Photo credit: Helen Sloan - HBO

From Digital Spy

Note: The following contains spoilers for season 8.

Game of Thrones saw the deaths of numerous characters during its final season, but one dead character was originally supposed to survive.

Ser Jorah Mormont, played by Iain Glen, fell at the Battle of Winterfell in episode 3 'The Long Night'. The writers' room had actually planned a different fate, one that saw Daenerys Targaryen's (Emilia Clarke) companion end the series at The Wall with Jon Snow (Kit Harington).

"For a long time, we wanted Ser Jorah to be there at The Wall in the end," writer Dave Hill explained to Entertainment Weekly. "The three coming out of the tunnel would be Jon and Jorah and Tormund.

Photo credit: Helen Sloan - HBO
Photo credit: Helen Sloan - HBO

"But the amount of logic we'd have to bend to get Jorah up to The Wall and get him to leave Dany's side right before [the events in the finale]... there's no way to do that blithely.

"And Jorah should have the noble death he craves defending the woman he loves."

Daenerys died in the series finale at the hands of Jon, not long after she defeated Cersei Lannister (Lena Headey), killed thousands and thousands of civilians, and claimed the Iron Throne.

Photo credit: Helen Sloan/HBO
Photo credit: Helen Sloan/HBO

Elsewhere, Bran Stark (Isaac Hempstead Wright) was named the new ruler of Westeros, with Tyrion Lannister (Peter Dinklage) as his Hand, and Sansa Stark (Sophie Turner) became Queen in the North.

But not everybody was pleased with the final few episodes. More than 1.5 million people have signed a Change.org petition asking for HBO to remake season 8, while in a Digital Spy poll, 55% said that they were disappointed with how the show ended.

Photo credit: HBO
Photo credit: HBO

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Game of Thrones aired on HBO in the US, and you can also catch up on the show via Hulu. Viewers in the UK can catch up via Sky Atlantic and NOW TV.



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