Image credit: HBO

Many would hope for it to be a prank rather than a reality.

It’s not too often that you see true unity between the actors and the fandom over something. Bound by experience and the need to maintain the status quo in order to work together at some point in the future, the actors often find themselves softening the edges of the fandom’s disappointment.

The Game of Thrones cast, however, didn’t hold back when it came to their thoughts on their characters’ final scenes and the series finale as a whole. While remaining as respectful and professional as possible, one talent after another criticized how their character’s endings were handled.

And even those whose characters actually got a happy ending were extremely confused by what they saw and couldn’t believe their eyes.

The actor who portrayed Bran Stark from the very first episode of Game of Thrones until the end of season 8, Isaac Hempstead-Wright, once confirmed in an interview that he refused to believe the script he read. Whether he liked what he saw or not didn’t matter: the actor was more inclined to believe he was being tricked than that Bran would actually become King.

“I genuinely thought it was a joke script and that [showrunners David Benioff and Dan Weiss] sent to everyone a script with their own character ends up on the Iron Throne. ‘Yeah, good one guys. Oh s—, it’s actually real?’” Hempstead-Wright recalled the moment in a talk with Entertainment Weekly.

Still, the actor is happy that Bran ended up on the Iron Throne over other contenders. Aware that the audience may not be happy with the decision, as it was a surprise to everyone, he still hopes that people will come to terms with it.

And for those who can’t bring themselves to believe that one of the Starks will end up as ruler, there’s still hope for George R.R. Martin’s version of events, which will be published in the final book of the A Song of Ice and Fire series.

Although the release date is still unknown, the author claims that the book is in the works.