While her character didn’t meet the tragic end that happened to so many others, Maisie Williams is not the biggest fan of the last season of Game of Thrones. From the very beginning of the series, Maisie starred as fan favorite, Arya Stark, one of the show’s standout characters. Her story remained open at the end of the series, with some fans calling for a spin-off that follows Arya on her new adventures.
While the fans loved Arya, they weren’t all that excited about the show’s final season, causing so much controversy over how the storylines wrapped that a popular petition was launched to re-record the whole thing. While Williams doesn’t go that far, in a recent Twitch stream (via Variety) during a conversation with brother James Williams that she felt similarly unsatisfied when she recently watched the series. She first explained how the show “started very strong” and said how grateful she was to be on that ride.
“It was a bit disappointing,” she said. “For the longest time… I could never see it from the outside. So I could never say that and really understand. For the first time it feels good to be proud of it. It was 10 years of my life.”
Despite the strong start and overall enjoyment she had from the show when she rewatched it, Williams also noted that: Game of Thrones “definitely lost weight in the end.”
Will Maisie Williams return to the world of Game of Thrones?
While the Game of Thrones franchise expanded with the prequel series House of the Dragon recently completed the first season, there is a Kit Harington-led sequel series about Jon Snow also in development. It is possible that Williams will return as Arya Stark in that series. It’s also possible that Williams will similarly get her own spin-off that puts Arya at the forefront. In any case, Williams said: People shortly after news broke about the Jon Snow series, she said “never say never” about a possible return, acknowledging that there was more story to tell with the character.
“It’s obviously a very exciting prospect, so never say never,” she said, noting that she doesn’t yet know what such a spin-off would look like. “I’m still kind of figuring out what I think it should be, what I think would make people happy, and what I think would also be satisfying, as an actor, to sort of transition “We can’t just do the same thing we did – it has to be new. But what are the parts we’d like to take and what parts would we do differently? So I guess I’m still figuring that out.”
For now the focus is on House of the Dragon with the series doing well in its first season. The finale reached 9.3 million live viewers, which was the highest season finale to air on HBO since the original Game of Thrones series finale in 2019. You can stream the show on HBO Max.