Nikolaj Coster-Waldau Says All The Pieces Fit In Game of Thrones Finale

In an interview with The Wrap, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau said that all the pieces will fit into place for the upcoming series finale of Game of Thrones, which returns next year. Here are highlights:

On the script for the finale: “I read it, and I wrote [creators] Dan [“D.B.” Weiss] and David [Benioff] and said I don’t think they could have done a better job. I mean, when I read it — I’ve spent so many years working on this and been guessing and trying to figure out how this will end — and when I read it, some of the parts of it I’d get, and other parts of it were just completely shocking and surprising. And it wasn’t, there were none of those horrible — you know shows where it’s a murder mystery and at the very last minute you find out it doesn’t make sense?” he said. “But here all the pieces fit into this massive jigsaw puzzle.”

On Jamie’s relationship with Cersei: “His whole life has been about, ‘How can I accommodate my sister? How can I navigate this world so I can be close to her, so I can protect her?’ And then the last couple of years, she’s been in constant danger. I mean, he’s tried his best, and he thought, I think, in Season 7 he finally had her complete trust and the fact that she revealed she’d made quite different plans when Theon Greyjoy, that Qyburn is now her closest ally. I think it shocked him. But also more the fact that it didn’t make sense. They have a future, potentially another shot at having a child, and she’s willing to risk everything for something to him that just doesn’t make sense. And on top of that, they just gave their word to the world, to everyone. And she just sees this crazy thing tried to kill her … And I think he sees her for a second the way the rest of the world sees her. And it shocked him and also the fact for a second she seemed as if she was ready to have the Mountain kill him — I think it broke his heart.”

On filming the final season: “It’s been wonderful to do this last season. Almost all of it was shot in Belfast, so that means even though you haven’t been in the same scenes with them [the entire cast], you’ve seen a lot more people.”