“Game of Thrones” star Ian McElhinney is “miffed” that his character didn’t survive to see Season 6 of the popular HBO drama.
McElhinney, who played Ser Barristan Selmy, knight and advisor to Emilia Clarke‘s Daenerys Targaryen since the beginning of the series, expressed discontent at having been written out of the show. The character is still alive in George R. R. Martin‘s “A Song of Ice and Fire” books, upon which the series is based.
“Truthfully, miffed,” the actor said during a recent press conference at the MCM London Comic Con. “But I knew before I even saw the script because I got the schedule. Unfortunately I’d read the books, so I had expectations for season five.”
McElhinney went on to explain that he discovered he was being written out of the series when he looked at the shooting schedule and reached out to executive producers David Benioff and Dan Weiss to confirm.
“If I’m honest, I was a bit disapointed by that. I felt I should have known, it wouldn’t have made any difference but I felt that as a matter of just courtesy, I should have known,” he said. “I was disappointed because I had enjoyed playing the part and I was looking forward to getting more meat in the part and I had to dared to presume that I would at least go into season six.”
Despite his disappointment, the Irish actor said that it’s his own fault for making assumptions on a series where no character’s survival is ever guaranteed. “So be it. The deed is done and I’m on to other things and that’s that,” he said.
“Game of Thrones” returns for Season 6 in 2016.