Delving into major spoilers for the Game Of Thrones season 8 finale, let’s hear what Isaac Hempstead-Wright makes of Bran Stark’s eventual fate in HBO’s fantasy epic…

Chatting to Entertainment Weekly, the Bran actor spoke about the surprise decision – made the lords and ladies of Westeros, guided by Tyrion’s advice – for Bran to become the king. Tyrion’s logic was that Bran The Broken has a great story, which could unite the kingdoms in the way that many other people couldn’t

Everyone goes for it, and Bran ends the show as King Of The Seven – now actually six, because the North has dropped out with Sansa to lead it – Kingdoms.

When he first read the scripts in which these plot points play out, Isaac Hempstead-Wright couldn’t believe it:

“When I got to the [Dragonpit scene] in the last episode and they’re like, ‘What about Bran?’ I had to get up and pace around the room. I genuinely thought it was a joke script and that [showrunners David Benioff and Dan Weiss] sent to everyone a script with their own character ends up on the Iron Throne. ‘Yeah, good one guys. Oh s—, it’s actually real?’

And was the actor pleased that his character lived?

“I’m happy,” he said, “though I kind of did want to die and get in one good death scene with an exploding head or something.”

Does he reckon that Bran will do a good job?

“I think he’ll be a really good king actually. Perhaps there will be something missing in having real emotive leader, which is a useful quality in a king or queen as well. At the same time, you can’t really argue with Bran. He’s like, ‘No, I know everything.’”

And does he think the fans will love this ending for Bran?

“Not everyone will be happy. It’s so difficult to finish a series as popular as this without pissing some people off. I don’t think anybody will think it’s predictable and that’s as much as you can hope for. People are going to be angry. There’s going to be a lot of broken hearts. It’s ‘bittersweet,’ exactly as George R.R. Martin intended. It’s a fitting conclusion to this epic saga.”

Wise words, there, from a man playing a hopefully-wise new king. Certainly, we don’t want to come back for a sequel series in ten years time and find out that Bran royally screwed everything up. Regardless of how many fans loved or hated the decision, let’s just hope that the show left Westeros in safe hands…