Peter Dinklage says fans shouldn’t have been surprised by Game of Thrones finale: ‘The clues were there’

‘We told you not to name your dog Khaleesi,’ the four-time Emmy winner added

Peter Dinklage has continued to defend the Game of Thrones series finale that drew strong critical reactions from fans.

In a new interview with The Independent, the actor responded to the backlash against the show’s creators over heroine Daenerys Targaryen’s (Emilia Clarke) character arc in the show’s eighth and final season.

The 52-year-old actor, who played fan-favourite Tyrion Lannister, said: “I know a lot of people were supposedly surprised by the ending, but if you paid attention, the clues were there. We told you not to name your dog Khaleesi.”

Dinklage has come to Game of Thrones showrunners David Benioff and DB Weiss’s defence in past interviews as well.

He recently called the final season “extraordinary” and claimed that fans were simply upset about the ending because “nobody wanted it to be over.”

While speaking to The Independent, Dinklage also said he was “excited to watch” House of the Dragon – a prequel set 300 years before the events depicted on Game of Thrones, scheduled for release later this year.

Given the widespread popularity of Game of Thrones, Dinklage said the prequel’s makers should side-step the temptation to “recreate” its success.

“If you try to recreate it, that feels like a money grab. With a lot of sequels, the reason for them is that the first one made a lot of money, which is why they aren’t as strong,” he continued.

Dinklage is currently appearing in Cyrano, a film adaptation of the off-Broadway musical in which he also starred in 2019.

Cyrano was scheduled to be released in UK cinemas on 14 January, but Universal has delayed the film until 25 February, seemingly due to a rise in Omicron cases.