\u2018I sort of saw it coming, really,\u2019 actor said<\/p>\n
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It\u2019s usually tough for actors to receive a call telling them their character is to be killed off a TV series \u2013 but not for one House of the Dragon star, who was killed off in the latest episode.<\/p>\n
The season three finale of HBO\u2019s Game of Thrones prequel aired on Sunday (9 August), and it firmed up the playing pieces for what\u2019s sure to be a dramatic final season.<\/p>\n
One such event was the death of Helaena Targaryen (Phia Saban), who, having been imprisoned by Rhaenyra (Emma D\u2019Arcy), jumped out of a window and got impaled by spikes. For Saban, getting the call informing her of her character\u2019s fate didn\u2019t leave her feeling sad, but honoured.<\/p>\n
\u201cI did get such a call \u2013 I sort of saw it coming, really,\u201d Saban told Entertainment Weekly.<\/p>\n
Saban also said she knew her days were numbered as she had exceeded the life of her character in the books, who died much earlier in the timeline.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think I was having less formal conversations with the people who make the show and was being like, \u2018Come on, I know when I\u2019m gonna die,\u2019\u2019 she added.<\/p>\n
But this didn\u2019t stop showrunner Ryan Condal from giving her \u201cthe official call\u201d, which she found \u201cquite exhilarating and exciting, really, because you know that you\u2019re building towards something\u201d.<\/p>\n
Addressing the brutal nature of the Game of Thrones world, she said: \u201cI feel quite honored to die on TV in this universe. So it\u2019s a bit of a bucket list.\u201d<\/p>\n
Earlier this month, House of the Dragon director Nina Lopez-Corrado \u201ccontroversially\u201d defended the show as the series continued to deviate from George RR Martin\u2019s source material.<\/p>\n
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Martin has distanced himself from the show, which began in 2022, detailing his issues with Condal over several amendments.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe do deviate just a little bit in episode seven from what\u2019s originally in the books and, personally, from a character standpoint, what Ryan [Condal, showrunner] and the writers did in terms of that really helped evolve the character storylines from what were in the books,\u201d she told Entertainment Weekly.<\/p>\n
\u201dI know that\u2019s a very controversial thing to say for diehards, but I think some of the storylines that you\u2019re gonna see in [episode] seven that\u2019ll carry on into eight were really executed strongly by the writers and also by the actors.\u201d<\/p>\n