**SPOILERS for the Game Of Thrones Season 8 finale follow**
We spoke to Isaac Hempstead Wright twice in the run up to Season 8 of Game Of Thrones. TWICE. Did he let slip during that time that Bran ended the show as the King of the Six (!) Kingdoms? No, he bloody didn’t.
But we should have guessed something was up when he told us that he thought Bran’s arc was the best in the show’s history – and he’s certainly the character who’s come the furthest, from his first shot to his last.
“I do have to say I think Bran’s storyline is one of my favourites,” Hempstead Wright told us, “just because he really has survived against all the odds. He’s established immediately as a kid who wants to be a knight and wants to be able to run around, and immediately the things that are perhaps most important to him are taken away, and it’s a total blow to him. And then his family leave, he wakes up from a coma and most of them are gone, that’s the last time he’ll ever see them. And on and on and on. His House getting destroyed and then having to deal with these crazy, wacky dreams he’s having, he’s got no idea what’s going on.
“A disabled 14-year-old kid and two other guys and a giant who can only say one word going north of the Wall where there are all manner of things that want to kill them, it’s a miracle they made it. And after all that, Bran is now one of the wisest, most important and powerful characters in all of the world, and I think that’s a wonderful message of it’s not necessarily power of physicality or weaponry that sets you apart and makes you a powerful person, it’s your mind and how you respond to difficult situations. I think Bran is a real testament to that and a great message.”
Game Of Thrones had to give us an ending we didn’t see coming, and by putting Bran on the throne – albeit not the Iron one – it certainly achieved that. After all the talk of needing a ruler who doesn’t want to rule, it makes sense that the crown should go to Bran, who didn’t even want to be Lord of Winterfell, let alone king. Or maybe Bran simply played the game better than any other player on the board? Having the gift of foresight does give him something of an unfair advantage…
Game Of Thrones Season 8 is available now on Digital Download, and you can find even more Game Of Thrones coverage in the next issue of SciFiNow.