Game Of Thrones Ending At The “Perfect Time,” According To Peter Dinklage

Kit Harington isn’t the only one who believes Game of Thrones is ending at the right time.

While appearing in Variety’s Sundance Film Festival studio, Peter Dinklage (Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri) spoke candidly about HBO’s forthcoming swan song, and why Thrones‘ series finale comes at the “perfect” time – otherwise it risks jumping the shark.

Yes, after eight seasons and countless hours of fantasy-fueled drama, 2019 will signal the curtain call for Game of Thrones, meaning the current calendar year belongs to the network’s other flagship, Westworld. It’ll run for six episodes in total, while David Benioff and D.B. Weiss – along with directors David Nutter (“Mother’s Mercy”) and Miguel Sapochnik (“Hardhome,” “Battle of the Bastards”) – are expected to orchestrate the final chapter in HBO’s Song of Ice and Fire.

Meanwhile, here’s that quote from Dinklage, who told Variety that he’s ready to move onto pastures anew, beginning with a possible cameo role in Avengers: Infinity War. He’s also expressed an interest in joining Lucasfilm’s Star Wars franchise, and we imagine there will be no shortage of roles for the outgoing Tyrion Lannister.

It’s time. Storywise, not just for all our lives. It’s the perfect time to end it. Sometimes shows stay on a little too long, the jumping-the-shark thing. … It’s bittersweet when it’s time to move on with everything. It’s always the sad part of our business, because you get pockets of great people for short amounts of time and then you have to move on and it’s always heartbreaking. Especially when you’ve spent more than a couple months with people.

The eighth and final season of HBO’s Game of Thrones will reportedly come packing feature-length episodes when it roars to life in 2019. It’s the end of an era, then, but don’t be fooled into thinking that we’ve seen the last of Westeros…