We knew it was coming, and now we’ve seen it: Grammy winning musician Ed Sheeran is officially a resident of Westeros and “Game of Thrones.”
Sheeran appeared in the Season 7 premiere of “Game of Thrones,” sneaking in a cameo as a singing member of the Lannister army. The scene features finds Arya Stark (Maisie Williams) coming across the Lannisters, expecting a fight, and finding everybody is pretty nice.
It’s a bit of a rarity in Westeros for people to be nice to each other, but the folks hanging around with Sheeran on the show are pretty amiable. Arya walks into the scene expecting a fight, and finds a group of regular people willing to share their food, fighting a war that has nothing to do with them. They even offer her food with any expectation of payment.
Sheeran’s cameo was announced last year as the South by Southwest festival in Austin, Texas, during a “Game of Thrones” panel. Showrunners D.B. Weiss and David Benioff dropped the news that Sheeran would pop up in the show, but didn’t give any details about his appearance at the time.
Now we know: He’s a fairly chill member of the smallfolk, and even does some singing in Westeros. It’s also well-known that Maisie Williams is a big fan of the British singer-songwriter, making the cameo an even nicer moment than it already was.
Though they’re easy to miss, there have been a ton of musician cameos on “Game of Thrones” over the last six seasons. A few examples: Coldplay drummer Will Champion appeared in Season 3’s Red Wedding as one of the musicians playing “The Rains of Castamere.” Dr. Feelgood’s Wilko Johnson played the role of executioner Ser Illyn Payne in Season 1 and Season 2, and heavy metal band Mastadon appeared during the Season 5 episode “Hardhome” as undead wildlings added to the Night King’s army.
There are quite a few other musicians who’ve popped up during the show through the years, and there may be more such cameos in Season 7. Rumor has it, indie pop band Bastille is going to pop up in the finale episode.