“Game of Thrones” delivered the most-watched series finale in HBO history, with its last episode in 2019 drawing a reported 19.3 million viewers. Many of them, however, were disappointed in what they felt was a rushed final season — which even star Maisie Williams now says she agrees with.
“You know, I rewatched it all recently,” Williams, who portrayed Arya Stark, said in a recent Twitch stream. “It definitely fell off at the end. But it started really strong.”
“Thrones” was adapted from a series of fantasy books by George R.R. Martin and became a pop-culture behemoth after debuting on HBO in 2011. It ran for eight seasons and made Williams a star. The hit has since spawned a popular prequel series.
“For the longest time … I could never see it from the outside,” Williams, who was 14 when “GoT” started filming, said on Twitch. “So I could never, like, say that and actually understand it, you know? Whereas, like, for the first time, it feels good to be proud of it. It was 10 years of my life.”
Williams came of age alongside her character, whose arc from helpless child to capable warrior was followed by millions. But she wasn’t always happy with the decisions made by the TV series writers.
She told Teen Vogue in June she was “surprised” when her character slept with Gendry, a male companion, because she always thought Arya was queer.
In 2019, she appeared on “The Tonight Show” for a “Thrones”-centric prank, pretending she had dropped a spoiler that Arya would be killed.
“That was probably the most successful thing I did last year,” Williams later joked to Jimmy Fallon.
Despite the grumbling of Williams and millions of “GoT” fans, a Hollywood Reporter-Morning Consult poll showed 63% of respondents liked the series finale. And there’s still “House of the Dragon,” which has broken viewership records itself.