“Game of Thrones” is officially over and the only chance the world will get any more content related to the show is if they do spinoffs, an adjacent show similar to how AMC utilized “Better Call Saul,” which HBO has confirmed they will do.
Although the final eighth season was by most accounts an enormous letdown, you can’t deny that it was one of the biggest shows of all time because of the characters and the actors that portrayed them.
And this “Game of Thrones” star checked into rehab following the finale due to alcohol abuse and stress.
It was incredibly bizarre when Tyrion Lannister (Peter Dinklage) addressed the Iron Throne in the finale and said “There’s nothing in the world more powerful than a good story,” and went on to imply Bran Stark had the best. It was a head-scratcher that didn’t make a whole lot of sense.
The writers seemingly had no idea what they were doing or they just didn’t care because the aforementioned big four had inarguably better “stories” than Bran.
So you could probably see why this lazy writing – throughout much of the entire eighth and final season – might have stressed the actors out because they disagreed with how the showrunners D.B. Weiss and David Benioff wrapped up the show.
That may be one of the main reasons why actor Kit Harington (who played Jon Snow) checked into rehab for stress and alcohol abuse just before the series finale aired. Or it could’ve been the gaping hole in his life that he needed to fill given a huge part of his life for the better part of a decade is finally over.
Multiple sources confirmed it “really hit him hard.”
According to Page Six, “The British actor has been undergoing psychological coaching, practicing mindful meditation and cognitive behavioral therapy to combat stress and deal with negative emotions at the facility, which costs over $120,000 a month.”
And a close friend of his said, “He realized ‘this is it — this is the end’, it was something they had all worked so hard on for so many years. He had a moment of, what next? He’s in the clinic predominantly for stress and exhaustion and also alcohol.
The friend also noted, “His wife Rose is being extremely supportive. Everyone close to him really wanted him to get some rest. Right now, he just needs peace and quiet.”
Harington also lashed out at fans and critics who were upset with how the final season unfolded.
He told Esquire Magazine, “Whatever critic spends half an hour writing about this season and makes their judgment on it, in my head they can go f–k themselves. Because I know how much work was put into this.”
Harington apologized for sounding crass and backpedaled almost immediately trying to justify it with, “A lot of jobs, everyone goes back to their apartments at the end of the day. They have their lives and they have their families and they have their girlfriends or boyfriends back home. I think part of what made [‘GoT’] successful was the fact that we got on like a family. Everyone who came in was welcomed into the family.”
The fans and critics don’t really care about whether the cast got on like “family – that’s to be expected – they ended the show terribly and it’s quite possible Harington knows that deep down.
In fact an interviewer from “Pop Buzz” asking Kit Harington (Jon Snow), “But I couldn’t let you go without asking you a little question about ‘Game of Thrones’,” and he said, “Sure.” She followed up with, “If you could describe the season finale of ‘Game of Thrones’ in one word, how would you describe it?”
Harington thought for a brief moment and then simply said, “disappointing.”
Maybe his subconscious took over but weeks before the finale aired it seems as though he actually agreed with the fans and critics’ consensus.