Originally published March 11, 2017. Updated December 16, 2019.
HBO kicked off the promotion for the upcoming seventh season of Game of Thrones this week with the release of the first poster and teaser trailer, and two of the shows’s stars – Kit Harington (Jon Snow) and Isaac Hempstead Wright (Bran Stark) have been chatting about what we can expect from the penultimate season of the epic fantasy series.
“I certainly did more this season than I’ve ever done,” Harington tells The Huffington Post. “I think every actor on it did more action, had more action, had more scenes. They really focused it because less characters are coming in, and they’re focusing in on the existing ones, and there are lots of people who cross paths, and that’s something that I think the audience has been waiting for for a long time. They spent an increasing amount of money on less episodes, so it’s gonna be much bigger in scale, the CGI … we’re trying new things, experimenting with new camera techniques. I think we’re trying to break boundaries and push past boundaries in these final two seasons. You have to live up to the hype that’s surrounded the show and the worst thing would be to end without really pushing and trying new things. Even if it’s a failure, at least trying to go out with a bang.”
Meanwhile, speaking to EW, Isaac Hempstead-Wright discussed where we find Bran at the start of the seventh season, and how he is affected by his new role as the Three-Eyed Raven.
“Bran is in the same position he’s in, which is kind of like, ‘What am I gonna do? What’s gonna happen?'” said Hempstead Wright. “Is he gonna tell Jon? Is he gonna find anyone? Is he even going to make it past the Wall? He’s only with Meera now, and he’s out in the middle of nowhere, so it’s not looking great. I think the thing with Bran is that he’s had to change massively. His circumstances are pretty bad, but overall I think Bran has maintained his sense of being good. He hasn’t gone, like, “Oh man, I have all these amazing powers now, let’s mess some things up!”
“What’s been important has been taking this new role and that’s what Bran has done his whole life,” he continued. “He suddenly lost his legs, and then his family got killed, and then his house burned down, so it’s like, okay, ‘Now I’m in this forest with all these random people, and now I’m having weird dreams,’ but what Bran is thinking of above anything else is this sense of responsibility and purpose and not just being a kid anymore and doing whatever he wants to do. Bran has certainly understood that this is out of his control now. He’s a piece on the chessboard that has to make a move, and he hasn’t got any moves.”
Season seven of Game of Thrones will get underway on HBO in July.
