“Game of Thrones” creators crammed a lot into that blockbuster 80-minute season finale, but there was one key scene that didn’t make the cut.
Warning: Spoiler alert
One of the biggest twists of the entire season came when Sansa Stark pulled a bait-and-switch on Lord Baelish, who’d been plotting to turn her against her sister Arya — and it had appeared to work when she and her brother Bran hauled their sister into the Great Hall.
“You stand accused of murder. You stand accused of treason. How do you answer these charges … Lord Baelish?” Sansa says.
Baelish squirms, but then gets executed, yada yada. Incredible stuff.
None of us saw it coming, but actor Isaac Hempstead-Wright, who plays Bran, has now revealed that a deleted scene would have made the big reveal much less shocking.
“We actually shot a scene that didn’t make it in where Sansa comes to Bran’s chambers and says, ‘I need your help,’” he told Mashable.
Hempstead-Wright said the final editing decision probably came down to needing the “shock factor” — i.e., “the way they [Bran, Sansa and Arya] all coordinated” — in the Great Hall.
He added: “It’s my understanding that Sansa came to Bran going ‘actually, can you just fact-check all this, because I’m not sure who to believe, and I’m going to use the talking encyclopedia to set things straight.’”
The actor also addressed wild fan theories that point to him as being the ultimate bad guy the Night King, describing it as “far-fetched” — but possible.
“To be honest, I’m finding it a little bit far-fetched, but then again, I would’ve thought that the Hodor theory far-fetched if I’d seen that on an internet forum,” he said, referring to the shocking origin story and death of Bran’s beloved sidekick Hodor.
“I dunno, there are so many theories in ‘Game of Thrones’ and so many things that are gonna begin to tie up next season, I think it’ll be interesting to see.”