'We're all caught in this amazing world and spend so much time and money and talent to create, and all of a sudden there's a pop star?'
They may say Ed Sheeran’s in the Class A team, but one Game of Thrones star really doesn’t care for his bit on the show. The Castle on the Hill singer starred in a short scene in the premiere of series 7 which was widely publicised and Kristian Nairn, Hodor himself, really wished it hadn’t happened in the first place.
He told Huffington Post in an interview that he hated the fact that not just Ed Sheeran had been on the show, but that they’d had celebrity cameos at all to begin with. He said, ‘I'm not a fan of the cameos in Game of Thrones. I don't like them. I think it's stupid. I don't mind going on the record on that. I just think it takes you right out of the world.’
While other musical stars like Of Monsters and Men, Gary Lightbody of Chasing Cars and Coldplay drummer Will Champion have featured on the show, Kristian felt that the Ed Sheeran Game of Thrones cameo was ‘especially’ the worst of the lot.
He continued, ‘I was like, 'Why is Ed Sheeran here?' I mean, Ed Sheeran's great. He's a great guy, great musician, but why is he in Game of Thrones?’
Ed Sheeran played a Lannister soldier in series 7, who one of the show's protagonists Arya Stark bumps into while travelling through Westeros. Naturally, the singer croons a little song as he invites her to join him and his buddies around a fire which actually isn’t as twee and gross as it sounds. But we get what Kristian means when he says it lurches you out of the world, as we all definitely had a moment where we went, ‘Oh! Grammy award winning musical artist Ed Sheeran!’
Kristian clarified, ‘I'm not saying I'm not a fan of Ed Sheeran. I'm being tactful here, but just not a fan of the cameo. I think most people would agree with me there. It was a big snap to reality. It's like, 'What? What?’’
‘It's a fantasy show. We're all caught in this amazing world and spend so much time and money and talent to create, and all of a sudden there's a pop star? What?’ he continued.
And Kristian isn’t wrong. The HBO show is famously one of the most expensive to make on television, as each episode of the final two series apparently costs £7.7 million per episode. Game of Thrones cast salaries have also skyrocketed to £2 million for the show’s leading actors including Emilia Clarke, Kit Harington, Lena Headey, Peter Dinklage and Nikolaj Coster-Waldau.
Even if Kristian isn’t the biggest fan of Ed, there is somebody on the show who reportedly is. Game of Thrones showrunner David Benioff revealed at South by Southwest that the reason they’d cast Ed was down to the fact that Maisie Williams, who stars in Ed’s scene, is a huge fan.
David said, ‘We knew Maisie [Williams] was a big fan of Ed Sheeran and for years we’ve been trying to get him on the show so we can surprise Maisie. This year we finally did it.’
Well, Kristian might not have to worry about Ed Sheeran popping his head back in. The fate of the singer’s character was left pretty open-ended on the show, though we wouldn’t be surprised if he kicked the bucket. Given that the eighth and final series is only going to be six episodes long, we doubt there’s going to be enough screen time for Ed Sheeran to jump up on Drogon’s back and jam a quick rendition of Give Me Love.
