Considering that it is the most popular show on television, and has been since 2011, there’s an awful lot of pressure on the eighth and final season of Game Of Thrones to not just match but eclipse what has come before it.
That’s going to take quite some doing, as “Game Of Thrones” has featured some brutal battles, gory, surprising deaths and three dragons wreaking havoc, too.
But from the sound of Maisie Williams’ reaction to the scripts for the eighth season it appears as though “Game Of Thrones” will indeed reach these lofty heights.
That’s because the actress admitted to me on Monday that after going through them for the first time she thought it would be “an impossible challenge” to shoot the episodes.
Williams spoke to me on the phone from Belfast about “Early Man,” but towards the end of our conversation I asked for her original reaction to the final “Game Of Thrones” scripts.
“For the final season as a whole it was just so impressive. My first real thought was, ‘Oh god, we have to shoot this now. And it is kind of an impossible challenge. It will be really difficult’.”
“I am currently on my way to a night shoot, which is week 4 of 12 weeks of night shoots. It’s just huge. The task is huge. But, there’s no better way to leave the show, to be honest.”
Williams also discussed “the huge amount of pressure” on “Game Of Thrones” to finish on a high, which is so intense the actress admitted, “I’m glad I don’t write the show.”
She insisted that this burden has only pushed each and every member of the cast and crew to raise their game, though.
“You are constantly trying to do a better job than you did the year before,” Williams explained. “And everyone is trying to bring the best that they can.”
“Because we are such an ensemble cast, so much of the show isn’t to do with you, and even when you are in the scene it’s not always about you.”
“So it is a real team effort to make this final season the best we have ever done. It’s a lot of pressure, but we just take every day as it comes. And we are just really proud of the work we are doing.”
Unfortunately we will have to wait until 2019 for the final episodes of “Game Of Thrones” to finally emerge.
But those of you wanting to see, or at least hear, Maisie Williams in action can do just that from Friday, as she stars in the delightful Aardman animated comedy “Early Man.”
