When the “Game of Thrones” cast and creators were asked about the backlash to the show’s divisive final season after winning the Outstanding Drama Series award at Sunday’s Primetime Emmy Awards, Kit Harington bravely stepped forward to answer the question.
“I still haven’t seen the show,” Harington, who was nominated for best actor in a drama series for his role as Jon Snow, told press backstage. “So that’s how I dealt with that controversy — I haven’t seen the final season but I know what it took to shoot it. It was hard and all of them put their love and effort into it. Controversy, I think for us, we knew what we were doing was right, storywise, and we knew that it was right for the characters because we lived with them for 10 years. Controversy for us didn’t really affect us.”
Additionally, co-creators David Benioff and Dan “D.B.” Weiss also addressed the issue when a reporter asked, “If you could write the history, the thumbnail line of history, what would you like the TV historians, the social historians, to say about this program?”
“It’s not really up for us to decide what people feel about it,” Weiss said. “I hope people watch and like it in the future. There’s no way to tell how things are going to be perceived in 10, 20, even five years. These things change so fast. The landscape of television changes so quickly, it’s changing as we’re standing here right now. It’s so gratifying to have reached this many people. I hope people a little too young to watch now will grow up to learn about it and watch it as well.”
“Game of Thrones” secured its place on the Emmys’ Iron Throne Sunday by tying its own record for most Emmys won by a series in a single season.
The HBO fantasy epic has been the titleholder since it grabbed 12 golden ladies for Season 5 in 2015. On Sunday,”GoT” tied that record when its eighth and final season hit 12 wins, 10 of which the show picked up Creative Arts ceremony on Sept. 14 and 15.
The record was matched thanks to “GoT’s” win for Outstanding Drama Series, and Peter Dinklage’s win for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series (his fourth win in that category).
For the 71st Primetime Emmy Awards, the series received 32 nominations, the highest number of nods for any show in a single year since “NYPD Blue” got 26 nominations in 1994.
Among the 2019 nominations received by “Game of Thrones” was the coveted Outstanding Drama Series nod, as well as noms for leads Kit Harington and Emilia Clarke; supporting cast members Dinklage, Lena Headey, Maisie Williams, Gwendoline Christie, Sophie Turner, Alfie Allen and Nikolaj Coster-Waldau; and guest star Carice van Houten.
Season 8 also received three nominations in the Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series category and one for Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series.