Alfie Allen on the Game of Thrones prank that backfired

Game of Thrones actor Alfie Allen recalled some of the pranks he and co-star Kit Harington were subject to on set.

Game of Thrones has been over for months now but it will still be a long time before anyone stops talking about the show. We can put star Alfie Allen in that category too after his appearance on The Late Late Show with James Corden.

Plenty has been made about the series finale of Game of Thrones. Many, many fans criticized the not just the final episode but the entire final season as well. Yet one thing everyone agreed on was the performance of the actors.

Among the standouts was Alfie Allen. The Theon Greyjoy actor played one of the deepest characters in the series. Theon’s character arc was highlighted as one of Game of Thrones‘ best and was absolutely bolstered by Allen’s acting abilities. It’s why Allen was recognized with an Emmy nomination for season eight.

But as Allen told James Corden, he thought his time on Game of Thrones was going to be much, much shorter. An early script he received from showrunners D.B. Weiss and David Benioff revealed an early end for the prince of the Iron Islands.

House Stark got their revenge on Theon in the prank script. After yielding Winterfell to Theon, the crippled and (spoiler alert) future king Bran would “pop out from somewhere” and kill Theon. It would have no doubt disappointed and confused fans to see an immobile child sneak up on Theon and stab him but apparently Alfie Allen thought it was a believable end for his character.

Allen’s laid-back approach to his job on Game of Thrones is what made the prank backfire. He made no fuss about it and when others were concerned that he may be going mad about being killed off, Allen instead couldn’t be bothered and was in fact sunbathing.

As fans know, Theon Greyjoy’s speech at the end of season two is in fact quite rousing. But it is not Bran Stark that surprises Theon at the conclusion of the speech but a fellow ironborn.

Allen also reveals that Kit Harington received a prank script. In his version, Jon Snow is attacked by a White Walker and has his hair burned off in the process. That would mean that Harington would have to wear a bald cap for the remainder of the series. Again, that would have been another decision that would not have gone over well with fans.

Game of Thrones may be over but discussion about the story and behind-the-scenes drama will likely never end. While some fans may have thought season eight was a prank, they are no doubt glad that the prank on Alfie Allen backfired.