‘Game of Thrones’ Director Thinks Fans Are Too Butthurt Over Ed Sheeran Casting

Ed Sheeran made a cameo in the season 7 premiere of Game of Thrones on Sunday. For some reason, this pissed people off. It pissed people off so much that Ed treated his Twitter account like Jon Snow and killed it only to bring it back to life.

While fans who take the show way too serious were unhappy, episode director Jeremy Podeswa was pleased with Ed’s performance. Here’s what he told Newsweek:

“I think Ed did a lovely job—he’s a lovely actor and a lovely person…

He was appropriate for the part because he needed to sing. If people didn’t know who Ed was, they wouldn’t have thought about it twice. The hoo-ha seems to be from things that are outside of the world of the show. In the world of the show he did a lovely job, and he looks like he belongs in that world…

…I think people interrogated it too much, they’re bringing so much of his [superstar] presence into the thing which is far beyond what anybody was thinking going into it. He is known to the producers of the show and some of the cast, and he’s a gigantic fan of the show. As everybody knows, the show really eschews stunt casting—it’s never, ever done that.

I was quite surprised about the reaction actually because I know he’s very well known and a successful singer but you’re in the bubble of the show—the cast are well known too, everybody is really well known…none of them can walk down the street without being followed. You don’t think about that very much in this context.”

Lovely.

I’m with Podeswa. Game of Thrones fans are dumb and overly-sensitive. That’s what he’s saying, right?

It’s not like they cast Justin Bieber. Sheeran is Irish, looks like half the guys they have on the show, and had the voice necessary for the part. If you want to say the scene was stupid and that they didn’t need some random guy singing, that’s one thing. But to be upset that the random guy isn’t so random is lame.

This can all be put to bed by Maisie Williams. If Arya Stark declares, “Ed Sheeran is my friend and I was happy to do a scene with him,” all these Game of Thrones fans will buy 10 copies of Sheeran’s latest album and declare him as their new king.

Your move, Maisie.