Sophie Turner blasts Game of Thrones fan petition as disrespectful

Sophie Turner was asked about that fan petition to remake Game of Thrones season 8.

About a million fans had signed a Change.org petition to remake the HBO drama’s final season with different writers. Talking to The New York Times, the Sansa Stark actress called the petition disrespectful.

“People always have an idea in their heads of how they want a show to finish, and so when it doesn’t go to their liking, they start to speak up about it and rebel,” she said. “All of these petitions and things like that — I think it’s disrespectful to the crew, and the writers, and the filmmakers who have worked tirelessly over 10 years, and for 11 months shooting the last season. Like 50-something night shoots. So many people worked so, so hard on it, and for people to just rubbish it because it’s not what they want to see is just disrespectful.”

Indeed, Change.org petitions are commonly used to try to drive actual societal betterment, not lobby to remake a season of a TV show which is never going to happen. As Riverdale star Lili Reinhart put it, “This is not how television works. TV shows are not fan service. It’s ridiculous of people to think they can demand creative change from artists.”

Turner notes that when she was filming her final season 8 scene (the Dragonpit summit, shot during five days in Spain) she was utterly exhausted. “Every time they cut, I would just start crying because I thought it was the end, and then I’d have to bottle it up again and shoot another take, and another take and another take.”

(20)-Helen-Sloan---HBO — Helen Sloan/HBO

Turner also weighed in on some other final season elements. Previously the actress told EW her thoughts on Sansa not getting the Iron Throne (Sansa didn’t want it anyway, basically). In the Times story she adds, “[Winterfell is] the only place that [Sansa] really, truly feels safe. It’s the place that she’s the most capable of ruling. She would be a fair and loving ruler, and it’s what she’s been striving for this whole series: to go back home, to protect her home.”

The Times also asked about a controversial scene in the final season where Sansa seems to credit the abuse she suffered at the hands of Ramsay Bolton with her strength and character growth.

“I don’t think that was the intention,” Turner said. “It was that she was strong in spite of all of the horrific things that she’s gone through, not because of them. She’s had resilience since the very beginning, and despite all of these awful things that happened to her, she’s kept that resilience. Sansa to the core is resilient and brave and strong, and that had nothing to do with her abusers.”

She also weighed in on the show’s choice of Bran Stark as king. “I suppose it was unexpected but it makes a lot of sense,” she said. “The best way for us to move into the future is to look at our past and try to not make those mistakes that we did in the past. And he’s the one person that knows everything, so it does make sense. It feels like he would be an incredibly fair ruler.”

Read the rest of Turner’s comments in the New York Times.