Game On

Sophie Turner Hoped Arya’s Last Game of Thrones Kill Would Be Different

Add the Emmy-nominated star to legions of fans with an alternate vision for the HBO drama’s ending.
Sophie Turner and Maisie Williams in a scene from Game of Thrones Season 7
Courtesy of HBO.

Long after Game of Thrones wrapped its divisive final season, controversy was renewed by its record-setting Emmy nominations. The inevitable nods nonetheless gave stars the time and distance to share their own visions for the hotly-contested ending, including whether certain villains got their just desserts. Perhaps highest among that list was Cersei Lannister, whose ignominious fate has yet another critic—Sophie Turner herself.

Turner shared some honest feedback with The Wrap in a discussion about her Emmy nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama. She felt Cersei Lannister had too few character reunions during the shortened final run. Turner apparently counts herself among the many who thought the most vindictive Lannister would share one final confrontation with Arya (fellow Emmy nominee Maisie Williams), or at least Sansa herself, given their contentious relationship earlier in the series.

“I thought Arya would kill Cersei,” Turner remarked of the final episodes, in light of Arya—spoiler warning—setting out to assassinate the queen, but abandoning her mission at The Hound’s request. “And I would like to have seen Sansa and Cersei reunited, or Arya and Cersei. But there were so many ways the story could have turned out. I felt very passionately about the ending for Sansa, and I was very happy with the ending that turned out for her.”

Admittedly, it would take significant plot revision to place Turner’s Sansa and Lena Headey’s Cersei in the same room before the siege of King’s Landing, and Arya’s cheer-worthy kill moment arguably took place episodes earlier in “The Long Night.” Turner isn’t the only cast member with dashed hopes for Cersei’s final stand, however, as Headey herself claimed back in June “I will say I wanted a better death.”

If nothing else, Turner seemed otherwise comfortable with the final episode’s many divisive turns. “I think it’s true what Tyrion was saying: Bran holds all of our stories, and we can’t move on unless we remember our history,” she said of the throne’s final occupant. “Daenerys had to die. Cersei was a mad queen. Arya is too much of a free spirit. Sansa probably wouldn’t want to rule the seven kingdoms anyway — she wanted to stay in the North and defend the North. I really think Bran might be the perfect person for the job.”