It’s been nearly one year since Ed Sheeran appeared on Game of Thrones’ season 7 premiere, but one series star is still not over it.
“I’m not a fan of the cameos in Game of Thrones. I don’t like them. I think it’s stupid. I don’t mind going on the record on that,” Kristian Nairn, who portrayed Bran Stark’s loyal servant Hodor, told the Huffington Post on Tuesday, June 26. “I just think it takes you right out of the world. Especially Ed Sheeran. I was, like, ‘Why is Ed Sheeran here?’ I mean, Ed Sheeran’s great. he’s a great guy, great musician, but why is he in Game of Thrones?”
Nairn, 42, felt strongly that the Grammy winner’s appearance took fans right out of Westeros and back into the real world. “I’m not saying I’m not a fan of Ed Sheeran. I’m being tactful here, but just not a fan of the cameo. I think most people would agree with me there. It was a big snap to reality,” Nairn, whose character sacrificed himself during the season six finale in May 2016, explained. “It’s like, ‘What? What?’ It’s a fantasy show. We’re all caught in this amazing world and spend so much time and money and talent to create, and all of a sudden there’s a pop star? What?”
The “Perfect” crooner, 27, made headlines in July 2017 when he appeared as a singing soldier in the Lannister army who encounters Arya Stark (Maisie Williams) on her quest to King’s Landing.
Many fans of the HBO fantasy series weren’t about Sheeran’s cameo either, tweeting at the time that they found it “unnecessary” and “distracting.” Although Sheeran deleted his Twitter after catching wind of the backlash, he addressed the criticism head-on during an interview last year.
“No one wants to see me come back. I wanted to be a cameo in it and I’ve done the cameo,” he told MTV News in September 2017. “I’m cool with it, though. I enjoyed it.”
