Joe and Anthony Russo aren’t the only filmmakers to have walked on eggshells – and they certainly won’t be the last.
The Avengers: Endgame duo have kept most, if not all plot details under lock and key, all the while releasing bogus scripts and faux trailer scenes to throw everyone off the scent. It’s a strategy that David Benioff and D.B. Weiss know all too well.
They’re the creative driving force behind Game of Thrones, and while HBO has sent out bogus scripts in the past – cast your mind back to season 1 and you may remember Kit Harington receiving a fake screenplay in which Jon Snow’s face was horribly disfigured – they weren’t fooling around in “A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms.” Much to the surprise of Maisie Williams.
Yes, in the face of (almost) certain death, Arya Stark got up close and personal with Gendry (Joe Dempsie), leading to one of the show’s more intimate moments. And it turns out Williams was caught off guard when reading the script, even dismissing her Arya Stark sex scene as a prank.
Williams: “At first, I thought it was a prank,” she said. “I was like, ‘Yo, good one.’ And [the showrunners were] like, ‘No, we haven’t done that this year.’ Oh f***!”
Sophie Turner: “I called Maisie and was like: ‘Have you read it yet?’ And she’s like, ‘I’m midway through episode one.’ And I’m like: This scene, this page, read it! This is awesome! She was very happy.”
During her candid chat with Entertainment Weekly, Williams went on to describe some of the emotions coursing through Arya’s head, and why she sought comfort in Gendry, an old ally and a secret Baratheon. Could their newfound relationship have bigger ramifications for Westeros? This is Game of Thrones, after all, so it’d be foolish to think otherwise.
It was really interesting because it’s a very human relationship for Arya. This is something she’s stayed away from, an emotion we’ve never really seen her engage with. David and Dan were like, ‘It’s the end of the world, what else would you have her do?’ This may be is a moment where Arya accepts death tomorrow, which she never does — ‘Not Today.’ So it was that moment where she says, ‘We’re probably going to die tomorrow, I want to know what this feels like before that happens.’ It’s interesting to see Arya be a bit more human, speak more normally about things people are scared of.
The Battle of Winterfell lights up HBO this coming Sunday when Game of Thrones returns for season 8, episode 3. Who dies? All eyes currently rest on the Night King and his undead army.
