It's still a long way off but the final season of Game Of Thrones is well underway. Star Peter Dinklage confirmed it's about halfway there.
Speaking at Variety's Sundance Film Festival studio in Park City, Utah, the star, who plays fan-favorite Tyrion Lannister, also advised that this is the ideal time for the super popular show to finish up. The Emmy-winning actor argued that it's better to go out in a blaze of glory, rather than to overstay the welcome.
"It's time. Storywise, not just for all our lives. It's the perfect time to end it. Sometimes shows stay on a little too long, the jumping-the-shark thing," Dinklage said.
Tyrion has really gone through the ringer over the course of Game Of Thrones' seven-series run. He went from Lannister royalty to the Hand of the King for the most hated character of all, Joffrey Baratheon, to a fugitive father-killer, and finally Hand of the Queen to Daenerys Targaryen.
On saying goodbye to a character he's spent almost a decade inhabiting, Dinklage described the feeling as "bittersweet." He also described the process of leaving the cast and crew of Thrones, with whom he's spent months at a time on location as "heartbreaking."
The eighth and final season of the hit show won't hit screens until 2019, much to fans' dismay. Dinklage said they're about halfway through filming at the moment, but they're taking their time with it given its length.
Game Of Thrones has been a massive hit for HBO, and its absence will be keenly felt. Over the course of its run, the show has received more Emmy Award nominations than any other primetime scripted TV series, with a whopping 38 in total.
It was nominated for Outstanding Drama Series in 2015 and again in 2016, as well as collecting four Golden Globe nods in the same category over the years. Dinklage won three times for the show, collecting two Emmys in 2011 and 2015 and a Golden Globe in 2012, for his role as Tyrion Lannister. Cast members including Lena Headey, Maisie Williams, and Kit Harington have all picked up Emmy nods over the years, too.
Dinklage is at Sundance in support of Reed Moreno's I Think We're Alone Now, in which he co-stars with Elle Fanning. He also appears in Martin Mc Donagh's awards contender Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri which has cleaned up at the SAG Awards and the Golden Globes and looks set to demolish the Oscars in March, too.
