SPOILER ALERT “Game of Thrones” is a worldwide television event that rivals even the biggest franchise movies like “Star Wars,” “Indiana Jones” and Marvel’s “The Avengers,” and it might be more so.
There is no question that the fantasy show is HBO’s biggest cash cow of all time and it’s obvious that’s the case because of the increase in production quality each and every season.
But this “Game of Thrones” star begged the producers to cut a crucial scene in the season 8 premiere for this reason.
“Game of Thrones” might be the biggest television show of all time. Not just in the United States but it’s a worldwide event.
To put it in perspective, “Friends” scored 52.5 million viewers for its finale. “Seinfeld’s” season finale in 1998 drew 76.3 million viewers. The “Cheers” season finale ratcheted in 84.4 million.
But by far the biggest finale of all time was “M.A.S.H” with an eye-popping 105.9 million people tuning in. However, that’s just United States ratings and also network television and not subscription cable channels. The Hollywood film and television industry has evolved to be more inclusive of other countries and cultures.
“Game of Thrones” season 8 premiere drew in 17.1 million viewers this past Sunday, but the worldwide count would dwarf that. When you factor in live-watching, digital downloads and illegal torrents – on a worldwide scale – it may have been swallowed by approximately 500 million eyeballs.
One of the main stars of the cataclysmic cosmic event is actress Lena Headey who plays the ultra sinister Queen Cersei Lannister.
While most of the plotline of the premiere took place in Winterfell, there were several scenes in the south at King’s Landing where Cersei welcomed the ships of the Golden Company mercenaries.
An arrogant Euron Greyjoy predicts before he meets Cersei that he’s going to have explicit sexual intercourse with her. Once Cersei is in private, Euron asks for a private meeting with the queen to which she accepts after the war has ended. Euron insists wars can last years.
He uses his egomaniacal charm to force his way into her chambers and sleep with Cersei.
And Lena Headey was not happy at all about the direction of the character initially.
She told Entertainment Weekly, “I kept saying, ‘She wouldn’t, she wouldn’t, that she would keep fighting. But [showrunners David Benioff and Dan Weiss] obviously know what they’re doing and were adamant Cersei would do what she had to do.”
It may not have been clear to Headey the actress at the time but the showrunners knew exactly what was obvious to the diehard fans that tuned in.
Headey denied Euron’s request at first, but then she stopped and reconsidered, eventually allowing him to move past her guards and into her chambers. We see them post-fornication and Euron insists he will “put a baby in her belly.”
What you may not know is Cersei is already pregnant and she’s going to scapegoat him because it was her brother, Jaime who incestuously impregnated her before he left on the long journey to Winterfell. And Euron has no idea.
Headey also said, “There’s something to play in all of it. Cersei is such the ultimate survivor in all of this. She refuses to fall to her knees. She goes to the place where she doesn’t want to go, which makes it more powerful sad because of who she’s not with.”
This is a classic case where the actors/actresses need to trust in the writing because when it comes to television it’s their medium. Writers know what they’re doing.