Game Of Thrones’ Kit Harington Was “Genuinely Angered” By The Viral Petition To Rewrite Season 8

by

Kit Harington, known for his role in the hit HBO series Game of Thrones, has spoken openly about the fan petition requesting a remake of the show’s final season. The fantasy adaptation of George R.R. Martin’s work concluded in 2019 with season 8, but many viewers were disappointed with how the story ended.

The show’s finale sparked a huge backlash, with a Change.org petition calling for a rewritten season with better writers collecting over 1.8 million signatures. Kit Harington, who played Jon Snow, recently told The New York Times that he wasn’t happy about the petition. He explained his feelings by saying:

I was really upset by that, honestly. It felt incredibly disrespectful, and I can’t help but feel it was caused by the kind of thoughtless behavior you often see on social media.

Kit Harington was in rehab when the final season of Game of Thrones aired, so he didn’t see the criticism of the ending right away. He remembers how hard the show’s creators, David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, and everyone else involved worked on making the last season.

Harington recalls one battle scene that took 55 nights to film, and he participated in about 40 of those nights.

I really enjoyed the fantasy series as a whole, but I have to admit, the final season felt…off. Everyone seemed to agree that season 8 just didn’t live up to the rest of the show. The story felt incredibly rushed, and I think a big part of that was the shorter season length. They used to do ten episodes per season, but season 7 only had seven, and season 8 was even shorter with just six. It just didn’t give the story the breathing room it needed.

The first seven seasons of the show received very positive reviews on Rotten Tomatoes, with critic scores consistently in the 90s. However, season 8 has been much less well-received, earning a critic score of only 55%. Viewers seem even less impressed, giving it a score of just 30% on the site’s Popcornmeter.

The 55-night filming schedule Harington refers to was for the Battle of Winterfell, featured in season 8, episode 3, “The Long Night.” Despite being one of the show’s largest battle sequences, the episode received a lot of criticism for being too dark to see and for resolving the White Walker and Night King storyline too quickly.

Kit Harington might not be thrilled with the fan petition for more seasons, but he was still willing to reprise his role as Jon Snow. He and his team actually worked on a Game of Thrones spinoff show focusing on Jon Snow for HBO, though that project appears to be on hold indefinitely.

The world of Game of Thrones continues with the show House of the Dragon, which will return for its third season later this year. The show has been well-received and is planned to end after a fourth season, currently projected for 2028.

Plus, the new series A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms starts January 18th on HBO and HBO Max. Even though both this show and House of the Dragon are still years away from ending, the negative reaction to how Game of Thrones finished has created a lot of expectation for these spin-offs to have good conclusions.

Read More

2026-01-12 00:38