The end is nigh for Game of Thrones, and viewers will be stuck in Westeros withdrawal until the first spinoff makes it to the airwaves. The cast members have shared their feelings on the end of the series in a variety of ways, whether via a heartfelt post on social media, the vocal desire for a haircut, or the request to take a prop from the set. Nikolaj Coster-Waldau has shared his own feelings about leaving the series behind, and it turns out that there's one element of Game of Thrones that he won't miss as he moves on in his career:
But, yes, I'm going to miss the words. I'm not going to miss the armor. The costumes were very heavy. But beautiful.
Nikolaj Coster-Waldau will miss the writing that reportedly brought the series full circle during production of the eighth and final season, but that's not to say that there aren't elements of Jaime Lannister he'll be happy to leave behind. According to Coster-Waldau in his comments to The Wrap, he's not going to miss what he had to wear as Jaime Lannister. As a member of the Kingsguard and a deadly soldier in the Lannister army, Jaime has spent a lot of time on the series in heavy armor. In Season 8, he even wound up getting pitched into a pool of water in full armor, and he surely would have drowned if not for the timely intervention of Bronn!
Admittedly, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau did get a break from the full body armor during his arc following Catelyn's decision to free him from Northern captivity and send him south to King's Landing with Brienne. He wasn't even given a sword for most of that arc. Unfortunately, that arc didn't mean that he got to wear light clothes. Instead, he was traipsing around in a heavy, filthy cloak and getting his hand chopped off. Poor Jaime has come a long way from his status as the golden Lannister boy in Season 1.
Of course, back in Season 1, few of us probably would have described the character in any sympathetic terms. His first major moves on the series were meeting his twin sister for a tryst and then flinging a young boy out of a tower window after he caught the twins in the act. Jaime has gone through a lot of character development over the years, and the journey gave Nikolaj Coster-Waldau the material to score his first Emmy nomination for his performances in Season 7. Be sure to tune in to the 2018 Emmys to see if he and/or any of his Game of Thrones costars take home a trophy for HBO, which got some disappointing news overall from the 2018 nominations.
We'll have to wait and see where Nikolaj Coster-Waldau takes his career after Game of Thrones. Will he stick primarily with TV or move to movies? Will he become a soccer coach to have a future at the World Cup with his lookalike? Will Jaime end Game of Thrones by being transported back in time by the Three-Eyed Raven so he can appear in the spinoff?
Okay, probably not on those last two, but only time will tell. Game of Thrones will return for the eighth and final season on HBO sometime next year. For your viewing options in the not-too-distant future, swing by our fall TV premiere schedule.
