Kit Harington “Angered” By Game of Thrones Fan Petition

There were a lot of feelings during the final season of HBO’s Game of Thrones back in 2019, with some fans unhappy about how it was written. As the concluding episodes aired, some even started a Change.org petition to remake the whole season.

The petition, which claimed that showrunners David Benioff and D. B. Weiss were “woefully incompetent writers,” snagged 1.73 million signatures by September of that year – a sliver of the 13.6 million people who watched season 8 play out. Many of the show’s actors also went on to denounce the petition, with Sophie Turner saying it was “disrespectful to the crew and the filmmakers” and Carice van Houton calling it “fandom extremism.”

In a new interview with The New York Times during press for the latest season of Industry, Kit Harington has revealed he felt similarly. The actor, who played fan favorite Jon Snow in the series, said the petition “genuinely angered” him, adding, “Like, how dare you? Sorry, that’s just how I feel. I think it was a level of idiocy that can only come about through social media.”

Speaking with GQ in 2024, Harington spent a little more time deconstructing what may be considered the problems of Game of Thrones‘ eighth season, concluding that if there was any fault with the end of the show, it was that “we were all so fucking tired.”

“I understand some people thought it was rushed, and I might agree with them. But I’m not sure there was any alternative,” he said. “I look at pictures of me in that final season, and I look exhausted. I look spent. I didn’t have another season in me. “Everyone is entitled to their opinion. I think there were mistakes made, story-wise, towards the end, maybe. I think there were some interesting choices that didn’t quite work.”

Harington was also willing to chat about what happened with his touted Jon Snow spinoff series, which was quietly nixed before it got off the ground. The actor revealed that he initially didn’t want to do the spinoff, but was convinced by the possibilities of Jon Snow’s story continuing in an “interesting and important” way.

“We spent a couple of years back and forth developing it,” he admitted. “And it just didn’t… nothing got us excited enough. In the end, I kind of backed out and said, ‘I think if we push this any further and keep developing it, we could end up with something that’s not good. And that’s the last thing we all want.’”

New episodes of Industry season 4 premiere Sundays at 9 p.m. ET on HBO and HBO Max. Meanwhile, Game of Thrones prequel A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms will premiere Sunday, January 18 at 10 p.m. ET on HBO and HBO Max.