Ed Sheeran is heading to Westeros! The British singer, 26, will guest star on season 7 of Game of Thrones, showrunners David Benioff and Dan Weiss announced at the South by Southwest Film Festival in Austin, Texas, on Sunday, March 12.
“We knew that Maisie [Williams] was a big fan of Ed Sheeran,” Benioff told the audience. “So for years we tried to get Ed on the show so we could surprise Maisie, and we finally did it.”
Williams, who plays Arya Stark on the HBO fantasy drama, gushed, “Yes, it was very fun!”
The “Shape of You” singer has already been spending time with the cast. In his new cover story interview with Rolling Stone, he revealed that he recently entertained several young cast members from the series at his five-floor home in London. He also told the magazine that Game of Thrones is his favorite show.
Previous seasons of the HBO series featured cameos by musicians including Snow Patrol vocalist Gary Lightbody, Coldplay drummer Will Champion and the Icelandic rock band Sigur Rós.
“Many people say they’d like to do [Game of Thrones] and we tell them, ‘No, this is so boring, you’re gonna hate this. You’re going to be sitting around for 12 hours a day,'” Weiss told the crowd on Sunday, before recalling that Sigur Rós lead singer Jónsi Birgisson wanted to leave before he finished filming his scenes for season 4. “He was so done with it,” Weiss joked. “He was a super good sport.”
Benioff and Weiss also confirmed at SXSW that season 7 of Game of Thrones will be only six episodes. They have yet to announce the episode count for the eighth and final season, which will premiere in 2018.
Game of Thrones returns to HBO on July 16 at 9 p.m. ET.
