The insanely popular HBO show 'Game of Thrones' drew some serious criticism over its final season and according to actor Nikolaj Coster-Waldau it weighed on some of his co-stars who were "upset" over the backlash because they "worked so hard."
Speaking on a panel at a 'Game of Thrones' convention in Nashville over the weekend, the star, who played Jaime Lannister in the show, said that the cast discussed the "intense" online criticism over a group chat, reported People.
"Every season has been intense in terms of the attention and discussion, but it was extraordinarily intense for a final season," he said, according to The Huffington Post, as cited by People.
The actor stated that the final season of the show got knocked so hard that the cast couldn't believe how "vicious" the backlash got.
"And we have this WhatsApp group, the actors, and I saw some people getting a little upset because some of the stuff is vicious, and if you make the mistake of start reading all that shit, because if you guys get really angry about something--I'm sure you did, some of you--so you write to each other and go, 'F--king assholes. This is so not what would happen! They ruined, they butchered George's world!' It's just fun for you, but of course some got a little upset," he added.
He also revealed how they felt "weird" as they had "worked so hard" for the show to be successful.
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"There was that kind of weird feeling of, 'What the hell? We worked so hard'. I'm not asking anyone to feel sorry, by the way. That's not what I'm saying. I'm just saying how it was to get through that whole thing," he continued.
The actor just wants people to recognise that everybody, and especially creators David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, worked very hard on the final season of the show.
"For anyone to imagine or to think that the two creators of the show are not the most passionate, the greatest, the most invested of all, and to for a second think that they didn't spend the last 10 years thinking about how they were going to end it is kind of silly," Coster-Waldau said at the convention.
"And also know that they, too, read the comments. They really like everyone on Game of Thrones, every single person, and there are thousands, we worked our a-es off to make the best show we could for the ending," he added.
The final season of the HBO show was criticised for editing mishaps, dimly lit battle scenes and rushed storyline. The series finale, in particular, faced some backlash, prompting viewers to create a petition seeking its remake with different writers. The petition, launched on change.org, racked up over 1.6 million signatures.
Coster-Waldau isn't the first actor to defend the final season. Actor Sophie Turner, who played Sansa Stark in the show, slammed the petition as "disrespectful."
Actor Isaac Hempstead Wright, whose character Bran Stark was ultimately crowned king of the six kingdoms (excluding Winterfell), called the petition "absurd."
Kit Harington, who played Jon Snow, has also been vocal in his defence of the show. He also pointed out how hard the cast and crew had worked over the years.
The final season of the show concluded with its last episode aired on May 19.