Peter Dinklage says ignoring ‘Game of Thrones’ outrage was impossible: “We offended a lot of people”

Peter Dinklage has enjoyed moderate success ever since Game of Thrones came to a conclusive end, albeit an extremely controversial one, in 2019.

His most recent project involves an adaptation of Edmond Rostand’s Cyrano de Bergerac. Directed by acclaimed filmmaker Joe Wright, the film was recently pushed back to Feb. 25 due to the new surge of COVID-19, but that hasn’t stopped the talented actor from continuing to promote it.

When Dinklage sat down to have a chat about his new performance with The Times, the conversation inevitably turned to Game of Thrones, a subject that the American thespian has more often than not managed to dodge over the past three years. But now, the actor behind Tyrion Lannister has candidly discussed the outrage surrounding the final season, admitting that while the show “offended a lot of people,” at the end of the day, you can’t cater to everyone’s headcanon.

“You try [to avoid the chatter], but that was impossible. You’re reminded of it on a daily basis by the fans,” He said. “They had deep knowledge, but if somebody loves something they have their version of it in their head, so we got criticism early. Then, when we were leaving, they criticized again because they didn’t want us to go. Some got angry. But if you appeal to everyone you’re doing something wrong. And we offended a lot of people.”

Dinklage’s words are reasonable enough, but I don’t suppose that we can attribute all the Game of Thrones outrage to the mere fact that the show deviated from people’s fan theories and speculations. If anything, even creator George R. R. Martin had concerns that showrunners David Benioff and Dan Weiss were running off-course after season five, though most fans probably wish he’d actually done something about it back then.