Kevin Also Blogs: Emilia Clarke, Kit Harington & producers open up about Season 8’s scope and the time bomb of Jon’s secret parentage

Friday, January 4, 2019

Emilia Clarke, Kit Harington & producers open up about Season 8’s scope and the time bomb of Jon’s secret parentage

As promotion for the end of Game of Thrones ramps up, we’ll get more interviews in which the ultra-secretive season eight is finally discussed, and that’s just what cast members Emilia Clarke and Kit Harington, along with showrunners David Benioff and Dan Weiss, did for TV Guide’s Game of Thrones cover story. They open up about the scope of this season as well as what we can expect from Daenerys Targaryen and Jon Snow—except he isn’t a Snow, is he? And that’s probably going to cause a lot of trouble…

TV Guide’s season eight cover story was published online, albeit in abbreviated form, at TV Insider, where we can find David Benioff remarking that “the scope of this season definitely exceeds anything” they’ve ever done, as well as Kit Harington, Emilia Clarke, and Dan Weiss being quite frank about what will (“would”) happen if and when Jon and Dany learn the truth of his parentage and position in the Targaryen line of succession.

“From a dramatic standpoint, it makes things interesting, because the story is no longer about who Jon’s parents are,” Weiss teases. “It’s about what happens when Jon finds out.”

But what will happen when Jon finds out? Will he keep it to himself and ignore his legacy? Will he be able to guard that terrible secret, as Ned did, not only from the world but from his queen and lover? Kit Harington doesn’t think so, and he would know:

“Jon is someone who plays by the book. He cannot lie,” he says. “Finding out about Dany would be very hard for him.” So it seems he won’t be able to keep it quiet, whether he wants to be king or not. In that case, what would it mean for Daenerys to learn that she’s not first in the line of succession? Or that his lover is her nephew, for that matter?

“Daenerys’s lifelong dream has been to avenge her family and claim her rightful seat on the Iron Throne,” says Clarke. “She truly loves Jon. Were she to find out about his title, it would cut deep.”