Game of Thrones cast pressed for season seven spoilers at Comic-Con event

Spoiler alert: this article contains spoilers for season six of Game of Thrones

Asked what millions of anxious fans of Game of Thrones should do during the extra-long wait for the penultimate, truncated season of their favorite TV show, co-creator DB Weiss said: “You can always re-watch and start over at the beginning.”

That might work for some, but the overwhelming desire to see the series’ many mysteries revealed was palpable.

In a panel session at Comic-Con on Friday, questions from moderator Rob McElhenney and the audience often revolved around attempting to squeeze spoilers out of the cast and crew in the lead up to the summer 2017 premiere.

Those on the panel who knew the ultimate fate of the series kept mum, but that didn’t stop the rest of the group from speculating. The hall erupted when Hodor actor Kristian Nairn advocated for fan favorite Brienne of Tarth to claim the Iron Throne.

“I think for once Westeros deserves someone with honor and integrity,” he said.

The room was less enthused when Sophie Turner, who plays Sansa Stark, suggested Littlefinger would assume control of the kingdom. It’s a real trick to get an audience of 7,000 superfans to boo a cast member, but she pulled it off nicely.

“It’d be fun, it’d be quirky,” she said, a sentiment not shared by most.

Turner and Nairn were, far and away, the stars of the event. The noble death of Hodor in the season six episode The Door nearly brought Nairn to tears, he said.

“It has been overwhelming,” Nairn said, in reference to his infamous demise while holding a door closed as Bran Stark and Meera Reed escaped from the White Walkers’ army of the dead. “I did not expect it to be so crazy. I’m really flattered as well. I was in LA at a hotel the other day and all the doorstops said Hodor on them.”

Turner has become something of a folk hero for her work as Sansa, thanks to her powerful transformation from victim to leader. A major subplot in season seven appears to be the relationship between Sansa and her brother Jon Snow, and how they will govern the North now that Jon has been named king.

“I think Sansa believes it was probably more of a joint effort, in terms of the Battle of the Bastards,” Turner said. “I think she wanted them to be king and queen of the North. I don’t think she thinks he’s capable of running the North. I think she doesn’t think he has the knowledge, the experience, or the intellect that she has. And I concur.”

The Battle of the Bastards was a huge hit with audiences last season and director Miguel Sapochnik was on hand to discuss the filming of this pivotal episode. Initially, the forces of Ramsey Bolton would have been on horseback during the battle, but that proved to be expensive and impractical.

“If you run horses at people, they don’t like it. The decision was we weren’t going to run horses at people. We were gonna run people at people,” he said.

When discussing the circle of soldiers that trapped the Stark forces with spears, he revealed that: “The reason why we had the wall of shields arises is because we didn’t have the money to show what was behind the shields.”

Despite Game of Thrones’ reputation for opulent spectacle, even its makers have to cut corners in places. The infamous pile of bodies was also a bit of practical magic, as they could only afford one pile, which was repurposed to stand in for multiple piles.

“Between setups, 10 people in the art department would move bodies to another place, then move them to another place,” Sapochnik revealed.

Surprisingly, it was announced that he is not on the director list for season seven, though he might be returning for season eight.

The panel concluded with a short video package billed as exclusive footage of season seven, but was actually a montage of prop fabrication and empty sets with ominous music and voiceover of dialogue from season six placed over it. There were no revelations and no surprises in a panel that was more a victory lap for a remarkable run of episodes than the season seven preview people clearly wanted it to be.

Still, it was a lively, amusing affair featuring a cast that clearly has quite a bit of affection for each other. That loose quality might have been helped by a bit of liquid courage.

“Sophie Turner all made us shots of vodka before we came out here. Our answers may not be as articulate as they should,” co-creator David Benioff said.

It certainly helped make for a memorable afternoon.