Only One Game Of Thrones Cast Member Was Happy With Their Character's Ending

"Game of Thrones" ended its momentous run on HBO in May of 2019, and to say that viewers were disappointed by the six-episode final season is ... an understatement. ("The Game of Thrones" series finale has a few champions right here at /Film, and I love them, but they're wrong.) So, what does Sophie Turner, who originated the role of Northern noble Sansa Stark, think of how her character's story came to a close — and would she ever don Sansa's heavy furs again and return to the fictional realm of Westeros?

In an interview with The Direct, Turner — who's been working steadily on thrilling shows like the Amazon crime drama "Steal" — was asked if she'd consider playing Sansa again now that there are several "Game of Thrones" spin-offs. ("House of the Dragon," the first prequel/spin-off, hit HBO in 2022, while 2026 has given us the absolutely delightful prequel/spin-off "A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms.")

Turner, naturally, led with a joke ("Show me the money"), but she otherwise didn't take a strong stance on the issue. "I don't know, I think it would be hard but also amazing to come back to it," she remarked.

As Turner pointed out, though, she likes Sansa's happily-ever-after. "But I feel that I was very happy with the way Sansa ended her story in 'Game of Thrones,' and no one else was really happy with their ending," she admitted. "I feel like I got a good one, and so I don't know if I could revisit it. Maybe it would be an utter joy, or maybe it would be trying to cling on to something that was magic back in the day that can't be recreated." Ultimately, she has a pretty sensible condition: "I would have to see a script."

So, what does happen to Sansa Stark at the end of "Game of Thrones?" Before we get there, here's a quick refresher on her character. As the eldest daughter of the Northern noble Eddard "Ned" Stark (Sean Bean), Sansa and her only other sister, the headstrong and tomboyish Arya (Maisie Williams), accompany their dad to the Westerosi capital of King's Landing when he's called on to serve as Hand of the King. While Ned reunites with his long-time friend and battle buddy King Robert Baratheon (Mark Addy), Sansa decides that she'll marry the assumed Baratheon prince, Joffrey (Jack Gleeson), and be his queen.

Unfortunately for her, here's what happens instead: Robert dies, Joffrey takes the throne, Ned correctly points out that Joffrey is the product of incest between Robert's own queen Cersei Lannister (Lena Headey) and her twin brother Jaime (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau), Ned gets his head chopped off, and Sansa becomes a political prisoner. To undersell things a bit, Sansa's journey is ... rough for a long time. She's discarded by Joffrey, married off to the deeply cruel Ramsay Bolton (Iwan Rheon), and ultimately escapes Ramsay to reunite with the man she believes is her half-brother but is actually her uncle, Jon Snow (Kit Harington).

From there, things do get a bit easier for Sansa, and she ends the series as Queen in the North, ruling it as an independent realm while her weird brother Bran (Isaac Hempstead-Wright) sits on the Iron Throne. Still, with all due respect to Sophie Turner, I do have some quibbles about how Sansa got to that ending, satisfying as it might be to see her sporting a lupine crown.

Honestly, at the end of the day, Sansa Stark is probably my favorite "Game of Thrones" character — but just like all of her brethren, her brain doesn't seem to work so well between the show's sixth and seventh seasons. If you binge-watch the series all the way through (and you can, on HBO Max), the drop-off in storytelling quality between these seasons is unbelievably steep, and as a result, brilliant tacticians like Sansa's erstwhile husband Tyrion Lannister (Peter Dinklage) suddenly stop doing much in the way of thinking. Unfortunately for Sansa, she's also affected by the much-weaker output from the show's writers, directors — and, of course, its showrunners, David Benioff and D.B. Weiss.

Sansa is often described by people like Arya and Jon as the smartest person they're ever met, but she doesn't always ... act like it. In season 7, she appears to fall for an obvious ruse perpetrated by her frequent tormentor Petyr "Littlefinger" Baelish (Aidan Gillen) meant to drive a fatal wedge between her and Arya, and even though viewers are obviously supposed to see her as a genius for figuring it out, it ends up making very little sense. Similarly, in season 8, Sansa just hates Jon's new ally and paramour Daenerys Targaryen (Emilia Clarke) on sight, despite the fact that Dany brings three fire-breathing dragons and a full army to help defend their home Winterfell. Basically, Benioff and Weiss' poor storytellings leads to Sansa spending a lot of the show's final stretch sulking and scowling, never doing anything particularly important.

Yes, she gets crowned as queen, but the journey there is ... rough. Perhaps, if Sophie Turner ever plays Sansa again, we can get her a better storyline?