Nearly three years after the finale of Game of Thrones, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau is returning to television with a role in The Last Thing He Told Me, which hits Apple TV+ on April 14.
In that intervening time, Game of Thrones spinoff House of the Dragon got the green light from HBO, filled out its cast, filmed its first season, and debuted to gangbuster ratings, winning over millions of fans. Coster-Waldau, however, was not one of those viewers.
The Danish actor, who played Jamie Lannister on Thrones, told Entertainment Weekly he hasn’t seen any of House of the Dragon, aside from the title sequence. “One day it came on, and I saw the opening credits. And it was a little strange because it was the same music and the title sequence was kind of similar,” he said. “I was like, ‘Ah, this is too soon. Too soon.’”
Helen Sloan/HBO
Coster-Waldau isn’t opposed to checking out House of the Dragon at some point, though. “I’ll wait,” he said. “I’ll give it a couple of seasons, then I can binge-watch it and then there’s the whole thing. But I know that so many people love that show, and I’m really happy for them.”
Some of the actor’s Game of Thrones colleagues have spoken along the same lines. Emilia Clarke, who played Daenerys Targaryen on the hit series, told Variety in January that she hadn’t seen House of the Dragons either.
“It’s too weird,” she observed. “I’m so happy it’s happening. I’m over the moon about all the awards… I just can’t do it. It’s so weird. It’s so strange. It’s kind of like someone saying, ‘You want to go to this school reunion that’s not your year? Want to go to that school reunion?’ That’s how it feels. I’m avoiding it.”
And in March, Kit Harington, the actor behind Jon Snow, told Extra that House of the Dragon is painful to watch, in a way, but he enjoyed what he had seen of the show. “I’ve seen the first few episodes … I loved it,” he said. “I think they’ve done a fantastic job with it, a really great job, and I think all the acting in it is superb. It’s hard for me to watch because I lived in it for so long. There’s a pain there, you know? So I’m working my way through it slowly.”